Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has reclaimed the throne, taking over his title as the world’s wealthiest man from Elon Musk, after Musk’s electric car company suffered a drop in confidence on Monday.

Musk’s downgrade is believed to have been partly instigated by several tweets he posted over the weekend, with one suggesting that the price of cryptocurrencies bitcoin and ethereum “do seem high lol”.

The since deleted tweets appear to have cost Musk US$15.2 billion, with his net worth now standing at US$183.4 billion, down from its US$210 billion peak last month.

But bitcoin’s losses, too, have accelerated, with prices dropping below $50,000 and reaching their lowest point in two weeks.

According to Coinmarketcap.com, in the last 24 hours the value of bitcoin has dropped 8.35 per cent, with its market cap back below US$1 trillion to US$907.9 billion.  

RMIT’s senior lecturer of finance, Dr Angel Zhong, believes that bitcoin’s decline and the associated drop in Tesla’s share price may not necessarily be linked to Musk’s tweet.

“He tweeted on February 20. And yet bitcoin prices continue to rise for another two days, until a large decline on Monday. That means Musk’s tweet did not trigger an immediate price reaction,” Dr Zhong said.

“Bitcoin trading operates 24/7. Even though the tweet about the overvaluation of bitcoin was over the weekend, trading could have occurred if his tweet indeed moved the market.”

She, however, acknowledged that it is also likely that investor attention was weakened over the weekend, with the possibility that a delayed reaction to Musk’s comments occurring on Monday.

“Finance academic research has shown that investor inattention around weekend causes delayed reaction to news or company announcements,” Dr Angel noted.

Bitcoin’s and Tesla’s loss in value comes just two weeks after Tesla announced it was backing the currency with an investment of over US$1.5 billion. Just days later, a $150 billion investment arm of giant Morgan Stanley confirmed it too was considering investing in bitcoin.

At the time, Nigel Green, CEO and founder of deVere Group, opined that while the increasing institutional support will continue to drive bitcoin to new highs in this first quarter of 2021, investors should also expect volatility due to increasing regulatory scrutiny.