Bitcoin Boasts Worst Reputation
China's May Order Volume Halved
Compounded by Chain Recall Crisis
[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, who once topped Bloomberg's billionaire index, is facing a dire crisis. Tesla vehicle orders in China for May have halved, and a series of recall incidents have caused the stock price to plummet. Musk's personal reputation has also declined due to repeated critical remarks about Bitcoin.
According to Bloomberg on the 3rd (local time), Tesla's stock price on the New York Stock Exchange closed at $572.84, down 5.33% from the previous day. Compared to the year's highest closing price of $883.09 on January 26, this represents a sharp 35% drop. As a result, Musk, who once ranked first on Bloomberg's billionaire index with a net worth of $188.5 billion, now records assets of $160 billion and has fallen to third place.
The plunge in Tesla's stock price is due to a sharp cooling of investor sentiment as order volumes in the Chinese market, which had driven Tesla's stock price, have halved. According to The Information, a U.S. tech industry media outlet, Tesla's orders in April were about 18,000 units, but in May they dropped to about 9,800 units, nearly half. Bloomberg reported that this news "suggests a slowdown in sales in China, one of the most important markets in the automotive industry."
Previously, the series of recalls caused by bolt tightening defects also fueled Tesla's stock price decline. On the 2nd, Tesla announced a recall of nearly 6,000 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles due to bolt tightening defects, followed by two additional recalls related to seatbelt issues.
Moreover, Musk's repeated criticism of Bitcoin on Twitter has backfired. U.S. online economic media Yahoo Finance reported, citing social media marketing firm Awario, that Musk's reputation on Twitter hit a low point after his Bitcoin criticism.
Awario, which has been tracking Musk's reputation since October last year, announced that in January, positive (16.8%) and negative (16.2%) tweets were similar, but last month, when he posted many cryptocurrency tweets, positive tweets decreased to 14.9% and negative tweets increased to 19.2%. In particular, after Musk announced on the 12th of last month that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin for electric vehicle payments, negative tweets about Musk increased.
Ross Gerber, CEO of investment management firm Gerber Kawasaki, which holds Tesla shares, analyzed, "People losing money on Bitcoin are turning their backs on Musk, which ultimately negatively affects Tesla as well, creating a bad situation for Musk."
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