Elon Musk is facing a $258 billion lawsuit after crypto investors accused him of "inflating" the price on purpose for dogecoin.
The plaintiffs in the US case allege that Musk used his social media presence and an appearance on Saturday Night Live to raise the price of dogecoin "by more than 36.000% for two years and then let it go down"
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The filing claims that Musk "used his pedestal as the richest man in the world to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin pyramid"
The billionaire's lawyers described the lawsuit as an "imaginative work of fiction" based on "harmless and frequent tweets" about cryptocurrency.
"There is nothing illegal about tweeting words of support for something, or funny pictures of a legitimate cryptocurrency," the lawyers said. "The court should stop this testimony and dismiss the complaint."
Dogecoin is now worth $0.07, down nearly 90% from its highest value in May 2021.
Regardless of the losses, dogecoin holds a market cap of over $10 billion, making the list of the top 10 most valuable cryptocurrencies.
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The meme-inspired currency has largely followed the trends in the broader market with a top record in 2021 which was followed by prolonged losses.
The $258 billion is triple the estimated decline in the value of dogecoin in the 13 months following the price peak.
Musk had revealed that dogecoin is one of the three cryptocurrencies he owns along with bitcoin and Ethereum.
In an interview in 2021 with Time magazine, Musk had stated that dogecoin had economic principles to become a form of regular currency.
"Although it was created as a silly joke, dogecoin is better for transactions than bitcoin," he said. "It's slightly inflationary... but that's actually a good thing as it encourages people to spend rather than save."
In June 2022 he said he would not sell his dogecoin holdings regardless of price fluctuations.
"I will continue to support dogecoin," he wrote on Twitter before confirming to a follower that he would continue to buy it.
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source of information:independent.co.uk
