Crypto Investors Want Elon Musk to Sell Tesla Shares, Diversify

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has never shied away from engaging with his followers on Twitter. Now he is taking to the social media platform to decide whether he should unload 10% of his Tesla holdings. Crypto investors think he should and have some very clear ideas of how he should direct the proceeds.

To Sell or Not to Sell

Musk’s tweetstorm is in response to a theme that has surfaced surrounding unrealized gains and tax avoidance. In response to this theory, he has launched a Twitter poll to learn how his 62 million-plus followers feel about him dumping 10% of TSLA shares. Musk previously tipped his hand to potentially selling Tesla options in the fourth quarter before they expire in early 2022.

So far, Musk’s poll has received nearly 3,000 responses, more than half of which are in favor of him selling 10% of his Tesla stock. Musk owns slightly more than one-fifth of Tesla’s outstanding shares based on year-end 2020 data. If he sells, it will increase the 1 billion shares outstanding by slightly more than 2%, as per the latest InsiderScore data cited by CNBC.

Many of the comments are from the cryptocurrency community, who would like to see Musk sell Tesla shares to buy meme coins such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Floki Inu, to name a few.

Meme Coin Rush

Crypto YouTuber Matt Wallace got the ball rolling. He alerted his followers to Musk’s potential sale and hopes that the Tesla chief will use much of the billions of dollars to buy more Dogecoin. Others are convinced that Musk is eyeing Floki Inu, given his recent space tweets acknowledging Vikings (the nickname for FLOKI investors), the moon and Mars.

I think Elon is going to support $FLOKI, he clearly hinted at it in his tweets where he said Vikings on the moon and mars.

— Elendil (@martina656d) November 6, 2021

Shiba Inu investors were recently scorned when Musk revealed that his cryptocurrency portfolio is limited to bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum. Nonetheless, the SHIB army is hoping that Musk will spread the love across meme coins, including Shiba Inu. The SHIB price soared more than 800% last month, thanks largely to the buying activity of crypto whales, but has since retreated.

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor also had some thoughts on the matter. He suggested that if Musk’s “goal is diversification,” he should explore “converting the TSLA balance sheet to a bitcoin standard and purchasing $25 billion in BTC.” Saylor, whose company has been aggressively buying bitcoin for the balance sheet, is looking out for Tesla investors and would like to see them protected from inflation.

Musk says he’ll “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.” He has not promised to direct the funds to any particular cause or coin.