They do. That's why they have a policy that you're not allowed to borrow more more than 25% the value of the stock

> Tesla has a policy in place of letting directors and officers only borrow up to 25% of the value of their stock. And Elon Musk has already pledged about 88 million shares against indebtedness, according to Tesla's 2021 proxy filing. That leaves him with only another 85 million shares to raise debt with.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-twitter...

Great find! Is this normal policy at other companies? On the surface, it seems like a good idea. If you pledge 100%, and the company share price takes a dive, you might be inclined to do crazy things with the company to try to recove the share price!

Something akin to it is common, and the SEC may even require "large shareholders" to file when they've encumbered their shares, but I don't know the details.

It's about the downward pressure on the stock if he has to sell, not only because of highly visible profile but the amount of shares pledged :-)

Is there anything TSLA shareholders might try to protect themselves from this eventuality?

Any sort of hedging strategies we can expect a lot of money to flow into?