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Elon Musk has been hit with a lawsuit that alleges he and his companies “are engaged in a crypto pyramid scheme by way of dogecoin cryptocurrency.”
The plaintiff, Keith Johnson, wants $86 billion in damages along with tripled damages of $172 billion from Musk and two of his companies, Tesla and SpaceX, for losses incurred from trading Dogecoin since 2019, according to federal court documents reported by the New York Post. Johnson, a U.S. citizen, aims to represent a class of people who have lost money investing in the cryptocurrency.
Dogecoin “doesn’t pay interest or dividend,” the lawsuit reads. “It has no unique utility compared to other cryptocurrencies. … It’s not secured by a government or private entity. It’s simply a fraud whereby ‘greater fools’ are deceived into buying the coin at a higher price.”
MUSK APPEALS RULING HE CLAIMS VIOLATES HIS FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The lawsuit also demands that Musk, Tesla, and SpaceX stop promoting Dogecoin.
The value of one Dogecoin was worth a little less than 6 cents Thursday, nowhere near the value from when the cryptocurrency peaked in May 2021 at $0.72, according to CoinDesk.
The cryptocurrency market saw its total market cap drop by an estimated 12% to $980 billion on Monday, continuing a seven-month plummet for the crypto market, causing it to lose more than $2 trillion in value since the November 2021 peak.
Musk addressed the crypto market collapse through a couple of posts on social media. The multibillionaire tweeted out “cryptonight” on Tuesday evening and later replied to a meme indicating that in addition to stocks and cryptocurrency, another collapse related to real estate can be expected.
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1536874842783244288?s=20&t=x9Of3ppsjrJV_JWYZbt48whttps://twitter.com/BillyM2k/status/1536932973601181696?s=20&t=Pr6W3CHqre3o4mQ5sIpCog
In January, Musk announced that Tesla had begun accepting Dogecoin for transactions in its online store, after which the value of Dogecoin surged. Tesla invested $1.5 billion into bitcoin in February 2021, which the electric car maker said would provide “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”
Musk has not responded to the lawsuit as of Thursday afternoon.
In May 2021, SpaceX announced the DOGE-1 mission to the moon, the first-ever commercial lunar payload in history to be funded entirely by Dogecoin. It is set to launch Aug. 15, according to SpaceTV.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Tesla and SpaceX have not responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
