The American billionaire is being sued for $258 billion in a racketeering lawsuit alleging Musk ran a pyramid scheme to support Dogecoin.
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On Apr. 3, social media giant Twitter changed its icon to that of the symbol on the popular meme token Dogecoin (DOGE). Just two days prior, Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla, asked a U.S. judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed by investors alleging the operation of a pyramid scheme to promote Dogecoin.
Dogecoin is up sharply in light of the news, with its price surging by more than 22% in the past hour to $0.09784 apiece. The icon change took place platform-wide and is directly visible by the social media giant’s estimated 360 million monthly active users, and visitors to the platform alike. Musk’s lawyers reportedly argued that “funny pictures” and “tweeting words of support” do not amount to a fraud claim.
Shortly after the icon change, Musk tweeted the following meme, which appears to imply that the change will be around for some time:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
It appears that the reason behind the change can be attributed in part, to a conversation with the administrator of the popular r/WallStreetBets SubReddit on Twitter. “Change the bird logo to a doge,” said the WSB Chairman. “Haha that would be sickkk,” Elon wrote.
As promised pic.twitter.com/Jc1TnAqxAV
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 3, 2023
On Jan. 18, Cointelegraph reported that Dogecoin’s carbon emissions fell by 25% following a collaboration between network developers and Musk. “Working with Doge devs to improve system transaction efficiency. Potentially promising,” he tweeted.
Multiple market studies in the past have suggested that Musk tweeting about DOGE tends to drive its price higher. Throughout 2021, Musk promoted the cryptocurrencies with slogans such as “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto,” and proclaiming himself to be the “Dogefather.” Last year, Tesla launched a new series of whistles inspired by the Cybertruck series. Each whistle was priced at 1,000 DOGE, or $60 at the time of announcement. Fellow American billionaire Mark Cuban has also praised Dogecoin, claiming that it could be used to solve Twitter’s spam problem.
