Elon Musk has lost over $20 billion since hosting ‘Saturday Night Live’
The fortune of Tesla’s billionaire cofounder and CEO, Elon Musk, has plunged by more than $20 billion since Musk made his controversial appearance on Saturday Night Live last weekend, Forbes reports.
Shares of Tesla have fallen 15% so far this week, lowering Musk’s net worth by $20.5 billion—to $145.5 billion as of market close on Thursday—according to Forbes’ estimates. He remains the third-richest person on the planet, just slightly ahead of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, whose fortune stands at an estimated $127.6 billion.
Musk was worth an estimated $166 billion when he appeared on the sketch comedy show last weekend—making him the wealthiest person to ever host. He revealed that he has Aspberger’s, poked fun at his audacious business plans—and discussed the recent buzz around cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin. While Musk has publicly promoted cryptocurrency in the past, at one point on the show he called Dogecoin a “hustle.” Cryptos took a hit following Musk’s performance on SNL, with the value of Dogecoin falling more than 30% within 24 hours.
Later in the week, Musk made a sudden U-turn on his earlier statement in February that Tesla would accept Bitcoin as a payment for its vehicles. On Wednesday evening, the billionaire announced on Twitter that he was indefinitely suspending Bitcoin as payment, citing concerns about the “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions.” The price of Bitcoin subsequently plunged by as much as 17%, to below $50,000, on Thursday morning following Musk’s announcement.