Following a tweet from billionaire Elon Musk indicating that he would “keep supporting Dogecoin,” Dogecoin (DOGE) jumped over 20% on Sunday. Musk responded to a follower who remarked, “Keep purchasing it then,” by saying, “I am,” implying that he had been collecting meme coins all along.
Elon’s remarks came only a week after a $258 billion class-action lawsuit was launched against the Tesla CEO, Tesla, and SpaceX for allegedly running a bitcoin pyramid scheme. Elon was accused of pumping dogecoin and executing a racketeering conspiracy through his enterprises to back the cryptocurrency, according to a Bloomberg story published on Thursday.
“Defendants fraudulently claim that Dogecoin is a legal investment when it has no value.” According to the complaint filed by Keith Johnson, the plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit. He further accused Musk of abusing his position as the World’s Richest Man to profit from, expose, and entertain himself by operating and manipulating the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme.
Keith and the represented class alleged that they had lost $86 billion as a result of Elon’s dogecoin influence since 2019. Keith also requested that the plaintiffs be awarded $172 billion in triple damages.
Dogecoin had progressively gone from being an insignificant “meme coin” to being one of the largest cryptocurrencies, having been created as a joke in 2013 to poke fun at Bitcoin. The coin’s market cap surpassed $88 billion at one point, surpassing a list of well-known S&P 500 companies.
Elon Musk formally joined the Doge bandwagon in 2019 and was one of its most ardent supporters until its demise. The Tesla CEO has sent out many tweets intended at “mooning” the cryptocurrency’s price. Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao “CZ” has warned Musk against abusing his position of power to manipulate pricing, citing the fact that many people rely on his investing advice.
Musk began objectively supporting the meme coin, praising it for its carbon-friendly and low transaction costs compared to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, maybe taking a more cautious approach. Later, he would try to back up his statements by introducing doge payments for Tesla products, with intentions to expand to SpaceX and Starlink. Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is another billionaire who has publicly backed DOGE.
