In pre-market trading, Tesla has fallen by 7% to $1,136, meaning existing investors might not be too thrilled with the CEO's Twitter games.
If you think investing in cryptocurrencies is a white-knuckle ride, spare a thought for those who own shares in Tesla.
Elon Musk raised eyebrows over the weekend when he launched a poll — running for 24 hours — that gave his followers the chance to vote on whether he should sell 10% of his stock in the company.
This comes as U.S. lawmakers focus on unrealized gains. Although hundreds of billionaires have seen their net worth soar during the pandemic, this hasn't resulted in a greater tax bill because measures from the IRS only kick in when assets are sold.
On Saturday, Musk tweeted:
"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?"
The Tesla CEO added that he would abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes."
Well, the results are in. A total of 3.5 million people voted, with 57.9% saying they would support him selling 10% of his Tesla stock.
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Chaos Ahead for Tesla Stock?
Given how the Twitter poll took place over the weekend, the markets haven't had a chance to react to Musk's planned sell-off.
But we're starting to get an indication of its ramifications. In pre-market trading, Tesla has fallen by 7% to $1,136.
To put this into context, Musk currently owns about 170 million TSLA shares.
If he was to sell 10% of these, this would amount to a price of about $20.7 billion as of Friday's close.
While some analysts believe that this won't have too big an impact on Tesla's standing in the stock market, Musk's actions have irritated some politicians. Senator Ron Wyden tweeted:
"Whether or not the world's wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It's time for the Billionaires Income Tax."
