Elon Musk showed interest in ‘big deals’ in Bitcoin amid Tesla’s debut on the S&P 500 index

Electric car maker shares plunged as much as 5% on the first day of trading on Wall Street’s main benchmark index

Elon Musk asked about the conversion of “large transactions” from Tesla’s balance sheet to Bitcoin in a Twitter exchange with Michael Saylor, a prominent advocate of digital currency.

In a series of tweets, Saylor, the chief executive of Microstrategy Inc., urged the billionaire to transfer US dollars from the electric car maker to Bitcoin and “do his shareholders a favour of US $ 100 billion .”

“Other S&P 500 firms would follow suit and, over time, it would grow to become a $ 1 trillion favor, ” Saylor added in his tweet Sunday.

The exchange of comments came after Musk posted a suggestive image indicating that he was interested in Bitcoin, the value of which has more than tripled this year.

“Are such large transactions possible?” Musk tweeted in response to Saylor. Many people assured him that they did, as did Saylor, who said he had bought more than $ 1.3 billion worth of Bitcoin and offered to share his “manual” offline.

Investors are vying for exposure to record-breaking Bitcoin rally, even if it means paying a high-profit margin. As the largest cryptocurrency soared above $ 23,000 for the first time last week, the fever propelled the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund up to 650% above the value of its holdings, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

If you want to do your shareholders a $100 billion favor, convert the $TSLA balance sheet from USD to #BTC. Other firms on the S&P 500 would follow your lead & in time it would grow to become a $1 trillion favor.

— Michael Saylor (@michael_saylor) December 20, 2020

S&P 500 debut

On Monday, Tesla shares plunged on its debut on the S&P 500, Wall Street’s main benchmark index, in a session marked by concerns about a new strain of rapidly spreading coronavirus in Britain.

Tesla shares sank as much as 5% to $ 659.99 within half an hour into the session.

The company becomes the most valuable company ever admitted to the S&P 500 and accounted for a 1.69% weight in the index before trading Monday.

Tesla’s stock surged in the last year has brought its market value to around $ 630 billion, making it the sixth most valuable US company to go public. Tesla is by far the most traded stock by value on Wall Street, with an average value of $ 18 billion of its shares traded each session over the past 12 months, easily outperforming Apple, which is second, according to data from Refinitiv.

Tesla has posted a boost eight times this year. The breakthrough catapulted Musk’s own fortune by adding $ 140 billion to his net worth of $ 167 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

About a fifth of Tesla’s shares is held by Musk.