The lawsuit dictates that the three parties significantly manipulated the memecoin's price.
On June 16, business magnate and billionaire Elon Musk, together with his companies Tesla and SpaceX were sued for an astonishing $258B by the plaintiff and Dogecoin investor Keith Johnson over an allegation that the three parties manipulated the price of Dogecoin.
According to the official statement, Musk was accused of participating in a particular crypto pyramid scheme dubbed Ponzi scheme. The complaint filed in the New York District Court dictated that a few years ago, Musk and his two previously mentioned corporations purchased and promoted Dogecoin by using “his pedestal as World’s Richest man.”
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As stated in the lawsuit, between May 2021 and June 2022, Johnson, along with the others in the class-action, managed to lose around $86B. On top of that, the investor implied that Musk posted too many memes regarding Dogecoin, adding that the billionaire illegally made money because of wire fraud, false advertising, deceptive practices, negligence, and other illegal activities. This, according to the Dogecoin investor, led to a significant decrease in crypto’s price.
Furthermore, the filing underlines the fact that the trading of Musk’s Dogecoin should be considered a gambling act, meaning that the three parties broke the law and “all wagers lost trading Dogecoin” must be returned.
The lawsuit also mentions that further promotion of Dogecoin must be banned. Johnson is reportedly seeking to receive $86B for punitive damages, as well as $172B to cover other costs, including lawyers’ fees and expenses.
In response to the lawsuit, a number of players in the crypto community have shared their opinions. For instance, Shibetoshi Nakamoto, the Japanese creator of Dogecoin, recently stated that it's "stupid", adding that the proposal to make all crypto into gambling is illogical.
At the beginning of this year, Musk issued a statement indicating that Tesla, an American-based electric vehicle manufacturer, would be accepting Dogecoin as a legal payment method for various goods and services. On top of that, back in May, the business magnate mentioned that SpaceX would also accept the largest memecoin as payment.
