Elon Musk, and two of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, are facing a $258 billion lawsuit.
Takeaway Points:
- Elon Musk and his companies have been sued for $258 billion by an investor.
- Elon and his team have yet to respond to the lawsuit against them.
- Dogecoin has fallen from a high of $0.74 to $0.05 in recent days.
The lawsuit reports that Musk has been sued with allegations that he and his prominent companies “engaged in an illegal racketeering scheme to inflate the price of Dogecoin.”
The complaint was filed in the federal court, in Manhattan, on Thursday.
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“The defendants knew since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value and still falsely and deceptively claimed that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment”.
“Musk used the pedestal of himself as the richest man in the world to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin pyramid scheme for profit, exposure and fun”, Keith Johnson who filed the lawsuit noted in the complaint.
Johnson said he believes that Musk has increased the “price, market capitalization and trading volume of Dogecoin” by promoting it.
He included tweets from Musk in the complaint, including one promising that SpaceX would “literally put Dogecoin on the real moon.”
Johnson further argues that Dogecoin is an “illegal phishing company” that is fed, promoted and manipulated via Twitter.
The complaint is also seeking $86 billion in damages, plus $172 billion in triple damages, as well as an order that prevents Musk and the companies from promoting Dogecoin, and wants DOGE to declare itself a “bet” under New York’s federal laws.
Johnson also includes comments from Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and others questioning the value of the cryptocurrency.
Elon Musk and his team are yet to respond to the lawsuit filed against them.
Elon Musk and Dogecoin
Dogecoin was originally designed in 2013 as a joke and is commonly referred to as a “meme coin” by software engineers – Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It has, however, gone from being a currency meme to a popular digital asset.
Musk has been an avid supporter of Dogecoin, often posting memes and insights on the topic on Twitter. The Tesla CEO believes dogecoin will eventually become the internet’s currency. His company, Tesla and SpaceX, have adopted it as a payment method for goods.
Developers are working with Musk to make it a competitor to Bitcoin.
DOGE’s price has traded in fractions of just a cent for most of its existence, but has benefited from Musk’s frequent push and rose to $0.73 in May of last year.
The coin skyrocketed after Musk announced his plans to acquire social media giant Twitter and make it private.
According to data, the price of Dogecoin has fallen and is traded below six cents, down from its peak of $0.74 in May 2021.
