Elon Musk No Longer World’s Richest Man

Elon Musk’s position as the world’s richest man has come to an end after two month, after shares in Tesla fell by 8.6 percent on Monday.

That 8.6 percent fall in Tesla’s share price wiped $15.2bn (£10.8bn) off the personal fortune of Elon Musk. On Tuesday Tesla’s shares were down a further 6 percent in pre-market trading.

The share price fell after the Tesla CEO tweeted that the current bitcoin price and other crypto currencies ‘seems high’.

World’s richest

Elon Musk had in early January 2021, become the world’s richest man thanks to a staggering 743 percent rise in Tesla’s share price during 2020.

That share price rise saw Musk overtaking the likes Mark Zuckerberg, and then Microsoft’s Bill Gates, and then Jeff Bezos, to become the second richest man in the world.

But now over two months of holding the world’s richest crown, Jeff Bezos has now reclaimed the title of the world’s wealthiest person.

Musk’s has dropped back into second place with a $183bn estimated fortune, behind Bezos’ $186.3bn.

Musk’s comments about bitcoin came after he endorsed the digital currency.

Earlier this month Tesla disclosed in its annual financial results filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), that it had purchased $1.5bn (£1.1bn) in bitcoin.

And the world’s most valuable car maker said that it may soon accept payment in the cryptocurrency for new electric cars.

Bitcoin value

And bitcoin has been surging until recently.

In the middle of this month the digital currency hit a record high of $50,602, before going on to reach $55,000.

Then last Friday the virtual currency reached a milestone $1 trillion (£710m) market capitalisation during its latest rally.

Bitcoin reached a high of $58,000 on Sunday, but on Tuesday morning had fallen to $47,500.

However it worth remembering that this price is still up more than 500 percent over the past year.