Tesla boss Elon Musk is guilty of insider trading against his followers using Dogecoin (DOGE), alleged memecoin investors in a court filing against the tech entrepreneur on Wednesday.
The accusations are a follow-up to a $258 billion class action lawsuit filed by the same group in June 2022, which accused Musk and his companies of causing hundreds of billions in losses to Dogecoin holders.
Elon Musk Dogecoin Agenda
According to amended filing in a Manhattan federal court on May 31, Elon Musk participated in “a deliberate course of carnival barking market manipulation,” through a “publicity circus” intended to pump up the price of Dogecoin.
These stunts include his public appearances and social media activity hyping Dogecoin since April 2019. These stunts boosted Dogecoin’s price by 36,000% to $0.70+ by May 2021. Today, DOGE is trading 90% off its high.
“Musk’s pretense that promoting Dogecoin is just a well-intentioned hobby – not to be taken seriously – is unbelievable,” read the filing, labeling the tycoon an “apex predator,” and his millions of Twitter followers as victims.
The lawsuit says that several studies have already shown the effect of Elon Musk’s tweets on the price of Dogecoin. In fact, Musk’s announcements that he will start RECEIVING SpaceX’s Dogecoin in 2021, and its VISITS at Twitter HQ after taking over the company last year, each contributed to the DOGE price change.
Musk once again used his influence by changing Twitter’s blue bird logo to a picture of the Doge meme’s Shiba Inu for three days, helping BOMBS the price of the coin by 30%.
The filing added that Musk and Tesla traded profitably around the billionaire’s “intentional movement,” citing blockchain records as evidence.
In particular, the lawsuit claims that a wallet address – DH5ya – allegedly belonged to Musk, and became the largest single holder of Dogecoin in February 2021. That wallet was then sold for millions of dollars. of Dogecoin several times throughout April 2021.
Securities Fraud?
A key part of the lawsuit is the presupposition that Dogecoin is an unregistered security under current standards from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Musk was founded by Dogecoin creators Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer back in 2013 – but they remained involved in the development of the project for years. Markus himself often mocks Elon Musk on Twitter, both of whom often make small comments about crypto on Twitter.
When the original lawsuit was filed last year, Musk’s lawyers said the case was fictitious. “There is nothing illegal about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion,” they said.
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