Don’t look now, but the big guy is selling his Tesla…
For those deeply attuned to this kind of executive sell-off, don’t worry – it’s not a major move in the grand scheme of things. Although Elon Musk has reportedly sold nearly a million shares of Tesla for about $1.1 billion, he still has an estimated 170 million shares in hand.
Why did Musk sell?
First of all, profit-taking analysis showed that those shares made 180% in gains over a relatively short time.
Beyond that, though, Martin Young, writing about the news at Cointelegraph this morning, cites a tweet by Musk creating a survey poll asking others if he should sell.
Nearly 60% of respondents supported the stock sale.
Musk has also gone on the record to suggest that he’s selling some of the shares in order to pay taxes.
“I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere,” Musk reportedly said. “I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”
What will Musk buy with all of his liquid capital?
MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, whose company made headlines a couple of years ago by being among the first to really sink money into Bitcoin for capital reserves, suggests Musk should buy Bitcoin.
“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,” Young quotes Saylor as saying. “That would deliver diversification, inflation protection & more upside for all investors in a tax efficient manner.”
However, in some ways, selling Tesla is itself divesting of a Bitcoin pure play, with all of the Bitcoin capital reserve resources that the company now has on its ledger.
Those interested in the contributions of mega-rich tech leaders to the economy might look more deeply into Musk’s assertion that he’s paying taxes with sold share capital.
Investors, meanwhile, should consider whether Tesla has a lot further to fly, or whether it’s time to do some profit-taking and plow that money into new investments. Do your own research and make your decisions.
