Elon Musk: the Tesla billionaire’s Twitter presence and its real-world implications
Now the world’s second most wealthy man, with a current net worth of $210.1B, Elon Musk holds a great deal of influence over the financial world, as well as a level of notoriety online. But his often-careless tweets usually have serious implications outside the social media app, and never are these felt more than in the stock and crypto markets.
Musk’s most crippling Twitter comments often act against his own company, Tesla. The first of these came in the form of a cannabis joke, stating ‘Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.’, $420 referring to the 4th April (4/20), a popular day for celebrating marijuana culture. This caused a frenzy which led to a spike in Tesla shares of 11%. However, his following tweet on working with top Goldman Sachs financial advisors to further Tesla’s private move led to further speculation among investors, causing a depletion of 15% in shares. While Musk’s tweets are often careless, the nature of them also acts to boost the commitment of his fanbase, particularly among millennials who glorify meme culture and see Musk’s tweets in line with this (this is aided by the constant Twitter stream of actual memes that Musk posts).
Equally, Musk’s tweets have had mixed implications on the crypto market. Almost every tweet Musk posts about Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin leads to a spike or fall in the respective markets. In February 2021, his slew of tweets about his love for Dogecoin boosted share prices by 50% within a day, and in June 2021, he tweeted a meme about ‘breaking up’ with Bitcoin, which led to a 5% drop in Bitcoin prices. Again, this has serious financial implications and would lead to investors making losses. However, as previously mentioned, this type of meme-like tweet tends to go down well with Musk’s millennial and Gen Z fanbase, who make up a large proportion of crypto investors. In this sense, Musk’s tweets on crypto currency may boost markets by bringing in new, young investors from Musk’s following who have been keeping an eye on the effects of his tweets.
Ultimately, while Elon Musk’s tweets may have some market benefits, the often-careless nature of them, as well as the controversial statements he makes on the platform (e.g. his comment on diver Vern Unsworth as a ‘pedo guy’ following the Thai cave rescue, and his anti-lockdown tweets), cause more harm than good, both for the companies he leads and individuals that his tweets concern. Until Musk begins to ease off on tweeting about controversial and market-related subjects, it’s likely that he’ll continue to cause more damage with his online presence.
