ELON Musk has been named in a $258billion dollar lawsuit alleging he partook in a cryptocurrency scam.
The plaintiff is suing for damages and losses incurred from trading the meme-token Dogecoin.
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The court filings allege Musk “engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme by way of dogecoin cryptocurrency.”
The lawsuit was filed by one Keith Johnson, who is seeking $86billion in damages and $172billion in “trebled damages” according to the New York Post.
The lawsuit demands Musk, Tesla and SpaceX stop hawking Dogecoin.
“Dogecoin is not a currency, stock, or security. It’s not backed by gold, other precious metal, or anything at all. You can’t eat it, grow it, or wear it,” the court filing read.
Musk and his companies are deeply crypto-friendly – Tesla invested $1.5billion in Bitcoin and the company accepts Dogecoin as a form of payment at their Santa Monica Supercharger station.
Musk has stood firm on his crypto holdings – in March, he said he would not sell his digital assets despite global economic instability.
Earlier this week, the richest man in the world sent a one-word tweet reading “Cryptonight” – the Superman reference is likely in somber recognition of Bitcoin’s worst dip since December 2020.
“Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all,” the plaintiff said in the court filing.
Musk publicly named himself “the Dogefather” and sent the price of Dogecoin up 13% in 15 minutes in April 2021.
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Meanwhile, Musk’s bid to buy Twitter is stuck in quicksand as the two sides frustrate over the amount of bots on the site.
When Musk launched his hostile takeover, one of his stated intentions was to solve the bot problem on the site.
“If our twitter bid succeeds, we will defeat the spam bots or die trying!” he wrote on Twitter on April 21.
Musk has not publicly responded to the lawsuit despite being briefly active on Twitter earlier today.
Musk owns a Shiba Inu dog named Floki – the breed is the symbolic mascot of Dogecoin.
