The surge in activity comes as Tesla shares erased more than $150 billion in market value on Thursday

A falling out between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk escalated on Thursday, prompting record trading volume in bearish put options tied to Tesla Inc.’s stock.

Options traders piled into bearish bets on Tesla Inc. stock on Thursday at the fastest pace on record as a feud between President Donald Trump and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk escalated, causing the electric-vehicle maker to tally its biggest daily drop in market capitalization on record.

Roughly 4.01 million put contracts in Tesla changed hands on Thursday, surpassing the previous peak from late 2022, Dow Jones Market Data showed. Thursday’s number was more than four times the 20-day average.

Tesla shares finished at $284.70 on Thursday, down $47.35, or 14.3%, according to Dow Jones data. Trading volume soared to more than 280 million shares, marking the largest one-day flurry of activity in the company’s shares since early 2023. Tesla shares have continued to decline in the aftermarket session. In terms of percentage points, Thursday’s drop was the biggest for Tesla shares since March.

By the end of the day, the company had shed $152.3 billion from its equity-market capitalization, the biggest one-day drop on record. Tesla has shed more than $200 billion in value since Musk left his White House role last week.

The feud between Musk and Trump escalated rapidly on Thursday, just a few days after spilling into the open. Soon after leaving his role as a top adviser to Trump last week, Musk started expressing his opposition to the Republican budget bill that Trump has championed. On Tuesday, he called it a “disgusting abomination.”

Trump hit back on Thursday, lashing out at Musk and threatening to cancel government contracts with Musk’s businesses.

“It sounds like they’re no longer getting along, and you’d think you’d want to be on the good side of the president,” said Danny Kirsch, head of options at Piper Sandler.

“If you start digging into the fundamentals of the company, sales have been weak. If the government goes from a tailwind to a headwind, what’s the valuation?”

Tesla is often one of the most popular plays for options traders. And on Thursday, it was second only to trading in options tied to the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, Kirsch said.

Trading in bullish Tesla call options was also robust, with more than 3.3 million contracts changing hands, the most in a day since April 25, Dow Jones data showed.