Elon Musk had planned the sale due to tax obligation before polling his Twitter followers about it, CoinTelegraph wrote. Tesla’s CEO has now sold over a billion’s worth of shares according to filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission today. These confirm he sold more than 934,000 Tesla shares for around $1.1 billion.
Musk’s profit is 180% over the past year
The billionaire sold the shares for $1,170 on average, which comes to almost 180% in gains over the past year. This is the third time he has sold company stock since Tesla’s listing on the Nasdaq in 2010, but it is the biggest transaction so far.
According to the filings, Musk had planned to sell the shares due to tax obligations back in September. He asked his followers on Twitter whether he should sell 10% of his holdings in the electric car company. Of the 3.5 million people who responded, almost 60% did so affirmatively. Musk has actually sold less than 1% in this case, leaving his holdings at more than 170 million shares.
In response to the poll, he tweeted:
I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.
After the poll, Tesla lost 16%, dropping under $1,000 yesterday. One week ago, the shares hit an all-time high of $1,230. At the moment, they are just over 10% down from that record.
Twitter tells Musk to sell
Musk, who holds Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE) promised to sell 10% of his Tesla stock if the survey results told him to. In crypto circles, there has been speculation that he might invest some of his cash in digital assets. He also asked his followers which crypto he should buy to make himself the first-ever trillionaire.
He should buy more Bitcoin according to MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor:
If the goal is diversification, an alternate strategy to consider is converting the TSLA balance sheet to a Bitcoin Standard and purchasing $25 billion in BTC. That would deliver diversification, inflation protection & more upside for all investors in a tax efficient manner.
Tesla’s current BTC holdings are worth an estimated $2.79 billion. This year, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen provoked controversy by saying the government should tax unrealized gains to target the extremely rich. The crypto space exploded with rage.
