Dogecoin investors accuse Elon Musk of insider trading in a lawsuit
The CEO of Twitter, one of the richest people on the globe, routinely expresses his opinions on Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies, which frequently drives up the price of the currency. He started tweeting about DOGE to his tens of millions of followers early 2019.
A class action lawsuit filed by Dogecoin investors accusing Elon Musk, the soon-to-be-former CEO of Twitter, of manipulating the price of the satirical cryptocurrency, has been granted permission to be amended.
In a document filed on May 31 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the investors claimed Musk engaged in an "undisguised course of cryptocurrency market manipulation" to profit from Dogecoin transactions by using his social media following on Twitter and media appearances. According to the lawsuit, Musk raised the price of the token by, for instance, changing Twitter's logo to the Dogecoin logo in order to profit from DOGE trading at the expense of other investors.
DOGE users accuse Elon Musk of insider trading in an amended class-action lawsuit
Investors in Dogecoin have asked for permission to amend a class action complaint they have filed against Elon Musk, the soon-to-be-former CEO of Twitter, alleging market manipulation of the joke cryptocurrency.
The investors alleged Musk utilized his social media following on Twitter and media appearances to benefit off transactions of Dogecoin through an "undisguised course of cryptocurrency market manipulation" in a filing on May 31 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The case claims that Musk made money from DOGE trading at the cost of other investors by driving up the price of the token by, for example, converting Twitter's logo to the Dogecoin logo.
Prior to Musk's purchase of Twitter but after his first interest in promoting DOGE on the social media network, the investors initially complained in June 2022; however, they have since revised the complaint at least thrice in response to his actions. They asked the court for permission to modify their lawsuit, in which they claimed that Musk was accountable for insider trading in DOGE and that the token qualified as a security under the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, "hijacked an emerging pop-culture phenomenon to cross-promote himself and his companies, and to pad his obscene fortune, preying on the earnest hopes of vulnerable Americans, including war veterans, blue-collar workers, and the elderly," according to the amended lawsuit. "This is a securities fraud class action arising from a deliberate course of carnival barking market manipulation and insider trading."
On April 3, a few days after his legal team requested that the second amended case be dismissed, Musk altered the Twitter logo to reflect the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. At the time, "funny pictures" and "tweeting words of support" did not constitute fraud, according to the Twitter CEO's submission.
At the time this article was published, Musk had not tweeted about the updated lawsuit. The Twitter CEO, who is among the wealthiest individuals on the planet, has spoken out frequently on Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies, frequently causing the price of the token to soar. In 2019, he began tweeting to his tens of millions of followers about DOGE.
According to reports, since Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion, the social media site's valuation has fallen to about 33% of that sum. On May 12, he said that Linda Yaccarino, the previous vice president of global partnerships and advertising at NBCUniversal, will take over as CEO sometime in June.
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