Elon Musk says he will keep supporting Dogecoin amid $258 billion lawsuit
Elon Musk, the self-proclaimed ‘Dogefather’, has finally broken silence today as he tweets about his favourite meme coin, stating that he will keep supporting the dog-themed cryptocurrency that was created in 2013 as a joke.
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After wishing everyone on his Twitter a happy Father’s Day and expressing the love he has for his kids, he went ahead to tweet about the memecoin, stating, “I will keep supporting dogecoin.” He was then responded by a Twitter user, Altcoin Gordon, who suggested that Musk should keep buying the memecoin, to which Musk responded stating, “I am.”
This tweet comes after the world’s richest man and his companies Tesla and SpaceX, are the subject of a class-action lawsuit to the tune of $258 billion. According to the suit, Musk and his companies are being sued for damages for being, “engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme” involving the leading meme coin in the cryptocurrency market.
It is no news that Elon Musk is a big fan of Dogecoin and all that it stands for, especially in 2021. Musk initially made Bitcoin as a means of payment for Tesla cars but went back on this development, citing environmental concerns.
In January this year, the love for Dogecoin led the billionaire to announce that his electric vehicle company Tesla would accept Dogecoin as payment for the company’s merchandise and in May, he announced that Dogecoin payments would also be accepted by his space exploration company, SpaceX.
As Musk was expressing his love and interest in the token, the price of the token continued soaring, with Musk himself predicting that the token would hit $1.
Although Dogecoin never made it to Musk’s price target, the token did hit an all-time high of approximately 74 cents, according to data from CoinGecko. Dogecoin rallied a stellar 7,000% to its all-time high from the beginning of January to May, when it hit its all-time high. Just five months. This put Dogecoin among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization and many argue that this would not have been possible without Musk’s influence.
In a filing against Musk and his companies, plaintiff Keith Johnson, a U.S. citizen, alleges that Musk and his corporations were “unjustly enriched” by $86 billion as a result of wire fraud, gambling enterprise, false advertising, deceptive practices, and other unlawful conduct.
Johnson claims that he and others in the class-action have lost approximately $86 billion between May 2021 and June 2022 and is demanding that figure in monetary damages along with another $172 billion in damages and fees.
The lawsuit stated, “Defendant Musk is the self-appointed ‘Dogefather,’ ‘former CEO of Dogecoin,’ partner, developer, spokesperson, publicist, salesman, marketer, and promoter of Dogecoin, who assembled the ‘Doge Army’ including his corporations and various billionaires, influencers, and celebrities to increase the price, market cap and trading volume of Dogecoin.”
The lawsuit also demands an order declaring the trading of Dogecoin to be constituted as gambling within New York and federal law, and also alleges that Musk and his companies have violated state and federal gambling laws.
It reads, “Since Plaintiff and the class were not advised that the trading of Dogecoin was nothing more than a gambling enterprise, Plaintiff and the class demand the return of all wagers lost trading Dogecoin.”
It also seeks to order Musk and his companies, and any other unlicensed professionals from advertising, marketing, or promoting Dogecoin in the future.
Dogecoin is currently ranked 10th with a market capitalization of $7.3 billion, currently trading at approximately 5 cents. Dogecoin is not immune to the intense selloff seen in the cryptocurrency space as the token is down 16% in the last seven days.
