Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
AUSTIN, Texas — Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied owning Dogecoin in response to a lawsuit accusing him of price manipulation involving the meme-based cryptocurrency.
The New York Post reported on Thursday that Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro said that allegations that his client and Tesla own Dogecoin wallets are incorrect and baseless.
In a letter reviewed by the Post, Spiro said that the evidence against Musk and his company is circumstantial.
“The sole basis for your claim is that these wallets sold Dogecoin at a time when, according to the Third Amended Complaint, prices were up,” he wrote to the plaintiff’s lawyer Evan Spencer.
“You specifically allege, without basis, that the following wallets ‘belong’ to Defendants,” Spiro added. “You are wrong.”
Musk faces a proposed $258 million class action lawsuit accusing him of insider trading and manipulating Dogecoin.
A view of Dogecoin commemorative coins, Yichang, central China’s Hubei province, May 9, 2021. Elon Musk has denied owning any of the Cryptocurrency. Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images
The amended complaint presented evidence of Musk’s ownership of the disputed wallet by citing a tweet he posted on Feb. 10, 2021, when he openly declared his acquisition of 28.061971 worth of Dogecoin.
Accusing Musk of exploiting Dogecoin for personal gain, investors claim that he did so by tweeting, using paid influencers, and appearing on “Saturday Night Live” on May 8, 2021 all while using wallets controlled by himself or Tesla
The lawsuit also highlights Musk’s April sale of approximately $124 million worth of Dogecoin. The sale coincided with Musk’s replacement of Twitter’s logo with Dogecoin’s iconic Shiba Inu logo. The cryptocurrency spiked 30% shortly after the logo switch from $0.07705 to $0.10109.
Investors also say that Musk knowingly manipulated the market, engaged in insider trading, and deceived them while advancing his reputation and his companies’ interests.
At the time of writing, Dogecoin was trading at $0.06244, up by 6% in the last seven days.
Lessons from Canada’s Solar Energy Failure: By Brendan Blowers As global efforts to transition to sustainable technologies ramp up, the debate over whether governments or markets should drive this change continues to intensify. While governments around the world rely on mandates and subsidies to push new technologies like electric vehicles (EVs), history shows that market […]
Lessons for the US in Canada’s Solar Energy Failure: A Market-Driven Approach to Sustainable Tech Adoption By Dr. Doug Milburn, Co-Founder and Chairman of Advanced Glazings The transition to sustainable energy sources is crucial in our fight against climate change and in reducing dependence on fossil fuels. However, the approach to achieving this transition—whether driven […]
