BILLIONAIRE ELON MUSK BUMPED OFF OF SECOND SPOT ON 'WORLD'S RICHEST LIST'
Tesla founder and billionaire Elon Musk took a significant hit on the World's Richest Person chart, all thanks to his Twitter posts. Musk lost his place as the world's second-richest person on Monday, 17 May, and has now been bumped down to 3rd place.
French fashion mogul, Bernard Arnault, has now taken Elon Musk's place in second after Musk saw a decline in his net worth, thanks to Tesla shares which dropped by 2.2%. Musk is now sitting at $160.6 billion, which is 24% down from its January highs.
The shares drop came after Musk revealed in a tweet that his electric car company will no longer accept Bitcoin as payment. He said this is due to "the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining." Following the release of his announcement, the digital currency went down by about 15%.
However, Musk further added that Tesla won't sell its more than $2 billion worth of bitcoin. The company still intends to resume transactions with the digital currency once mining transitions to more sustainable energy.
Musk became the world's richest person in January after Tesla's shares surged almost 750% in 2020. However, 72-year-old Arnault, the chief executive of the world's biggest luxury goods group LVMH, has amassed around $47 billion.
On Monday, Steve Bezos had a fortune valued at $190 billion, and Arnault was at $161.2 billion. The net worths topping the list are composed primarily of stock holdings, meaning that their values fluctuate daily with changes in the stock market.
Musk's latest net worth fall also occurred after he signed as a co-creator of Dogecoin. This was the cryptocurrency Musk has gotten behind and then seemed to abandon. Musk has been called out for his actions and recently been marked as a "self-absorbed grifter".
After Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $64,829.14 last month, the price of Bitcoin plummeted below $45,000 for the first time in three months. The cryptocurrency was at $43,637.90 on Tuesday morning.
Tesla shares dropped again in early trading on Tuesday after an announcement by the California Department of Motor Vehicles. They are reviewing whether Tesla is violating a state regulation by advertising its vehicles as being fully autonomous.