Elon Musk has stated time and time again that he is fond of the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin, but the Tesla CEO is now facing a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit for his involvement with the digital currency. The $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit has recently expanded even more, adding seven new plaintiffs and six new defendants.
As per an amended complaint filed on Tuesday night in a Manhattan federal court, Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company, among others, intentionally drove up the price of Dogecoin by over 36,000% for more than two years. The amended complaint noted that following this stellar run, Musk and his companies let Dogecoin crash.
The complaint alleged that Musk and his companies “profited tens of billions of dollars” at regular Dogecoin investors’ expense, according to a Reuters report. This was despite Musk and his companies allegedly being aware that the meme cryptocurrency lacked intrinsic value and that its momentum was simply being driven by marketing.
The original lawsuit against Musk was filed in June. The $258 billion in damages being pursued by the plaintiffs is about three times the estimated decline in Dogecoin’s market value since May of last year. Dogecoin lost some momentum after Elon Musk, during one of his segments on Saturday Night Live (SNL) jokingly admitted that the cryptocurrency was a “hustle.”
Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and another defendant, the Dogecoin Foundation, are yet to issue a statement about the lawsuit’s new developments.
While it is undeniable that Dogecoin’s momentum was struck following Musk’s comments on SNL, it might be difficult for the plaintiffs to prove that the Tesla CEO actually profited from the cryptocurrency’s crash. Musk has stated numerous times that he has not sold any Dogecoin at all, and Tesla, which already sold most of its Bitcoin, has maintained that it has not sold any of its Dogecoin reserves.
Inasmuch as Musk has been known to promote Dogecoin, he has also made it clear that investors should be extremely cautious when investing in cryptocurrency. Musk made this very clear in comments to reporters prior to his SNL appearance.
“First of all, I think people should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency. To be clear, I think that’s unwise. But if you want to sort of speculate and maybe have some fun, there is a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth. And then, it’s like, which one is it going to be? Maybe it’ll be multiple. But it should be considered speculation at this point. So don’t go too far on the crypto speculation part,” Musk said, later adding that investors should not “take too much risk on crypto” and “cryptocurrency is promising, but please invest with caution.”
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