A bunch of dogecoins Investors have asked to amend a class-action lawsuit against soon-to-be former Twitter CEO Elon Musk, accusing him of manipulating the price of a meme token.
In a May 31 filing with the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, investors allege that Musk used his social media following on Twitter, as well as media appearances, to extract money from the company through an "unveiled process of cryptocurrency mark et manipulation." According to the complaint, Musk profited from DOGE transactions at the expense of other investors by, among other things, changing Twitter's logo to the Dogecoin logo, causing the token's price to spike.
Investors filed the original complaint in June 2022 before Musk took over Twitter, but after he was initially interested in promoting DOGE on the social media platform but amended at least two lawsuits based on his actions. They asked the court for leave to revise their claim that Musk was responsible for insider trading in DOGE, while also claiming that the token is a SEC-compliant security. "This is a securities fraud class action lawsuit arising out of deliberate carnival market manipulation and insider trading by the world's richest man, Elon Mus k, who hijacked a burgering pop culture phenomenon to cross-market himself and his company, and to fill his obscene wealth and prey on vulnerable Americans, including veterans, blue-collar workers, and the elderly," the amended lawsuit states.
Musk changed the Twitter logo to that of Dogecoin on April 3, days after his legal team asked for the second amended lawsuit to be dismissed. At the time, Twitter's CEO filing said “funny images” and “Twitter supportive remarks” did not constitute fraud . At the time of publication, Musk had not yet tweeted about the amended complaint. One of the world's wealthiest men, the Twitter CEO has made frequent statements about Dogecoin and other cryptocurrencies, often causing the coin's price to skyrocket. In 2019, he started using Twitter to comment on DOGE to his millions of followers.
Since Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022, the value of the social media platform has reportedly fallen to about 33% of the $44 billion he paid for it. On May 12, he announced he would step down as CEO sometime in June, to be replaced by Linda Yaccarino, former chair of NBCUniversal's global advertising and partnerships.
