Elon Musk took it to Twitter to express support for Dogecoin despite facing a lawsuit alleging him of operating a Ponzi scheme to manipulate the prices of the cryptocurrency.
The world’s richest man seems to be unfazed by the allegations, as he publicly tweeted, “I will keep supporting Dogecoin.”
Musk has been the most high-profile influencer of DOGE since 2019. He had previously stated that it might be his favorite cryptocurrency. Every time Musk tweets about the meme coin, its price spikes briefly.
On Thursday, a complaint was filed against him and his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, at a New York district court for $258 billion by Dogecoin investor Keith Johnson. The lawsuit accused Musk of racketeering a pyramid scheme to drive up the price of the token, only to then let its price collapse.
Johnson requested the court to classify the case as a class-action suit on behalf of investors who had suffered severe losses due to investments in Dogecoin since 2019. He also wanted the court to suspend Musk and his companies from activities that promote Dogecoin and declare any form of DOGE trading as gambling under federal law.
The complaint read:
“Musk used his pedestal as World’s Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement.”
It added:
“Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading.”
However, the move didn’t find many takers in the crypto community as some began mocking the lawsuit.
Billy Markus, the founder of Dogecoin but no longer associated with the project, in a response to the lawsuit recommended current developers go beyond the hype and focus more on the project’s underlying utility and security. Musk likewise has expressed similar views.
Musk also assured Markus in a tweet to use Dogecoin in sustained payment gateways in addition to existing services involving his companies, SpaceX and Tesla.
