Tesla CEO Elon Musk has offloaded more $1 billion worth of shares, according to contempo financial filings.

Filings submitted on Thursday to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission confirm the sale of more than 934,000 Tesla shares worth around $1.1 billion.

Musk sold the shares at an average price of around $1,170, locking in most 180% in gains in prices over the by yr. It is only the third time Musk has sold company stock since Tesla went public on the Nasdaq in 2022, and it is his largest transaction.

The filings bear witness that Musk planned to sell the stock as role of his tax obligations dorsum in September. He polled his 63 million followers on the weekend, request whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla holdings. Of the iii.v million respondents, virtually 58% said yeah. Withal, the Tesla CEO has sold less than i% in this sale and yet holds more than 170 million shares.

In response to the poll, he noted, "I do not take a greenbacks bacon or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock."

In the days post-obit the poll, Tesla stock (TSLA) slumped 16% to dip beneath $1,000 briefly on Wednesday. TSLA had hit an all-time loftier of $1,230 on Nov. 4, and it is currently around 11% down from that height.

Related: Bitcoin dips beneath $67K as Tesla stock slump combines with Apple CEO denying crypto plans

There has been speculation — hopium, really — in crypto circles that he may put some of that cash into digital avails. Mr. Whale asked his 357,000 followers: "Which cryptocurrency should he purchase to make himself the first-e'er trillionaire?"

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor suggested he buy more Bitcoin (BTC) post-obit the Twitter poll but earlier the news emerged about this sale:

"If the goal is diversification, an alternating strategy to consider is converting the $TSLA remainder sheet to a Bitcoin Standard and purchasing $25 billion in $BTC. That would deliver diversification, inflation protection & more upside for all investors in a taxation efficient manner."

According to BitcoinTreasuries, Tesla currently holds 43,200 BTC worth an estimated $2.79 billion at current prices.