When Dogecoin [DOGE] first appeared on the scene, it completely changed the game. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, seized every chance to support DOGE. By adding support for the meme cryptocurrency asset on Tesla, SpaceX, and most lately, Loop, he increased his interest in it even more. So it was expected that there would be a lot of DOGE on Musk’s Twitter. But things did not turn out as planned.
A $258 billion lawsuit was initially brought against Elon Musk, his electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, and his space exploration business SpaceX in mid-June. The defendants were operating a Dogecoin pyramid scam, according to the filing.
In addition, the lawsuit claimed that the defendants artificially raised Dogecoin’s price by more than 36,000% over the course of two years before allowing it to plummet. Despite knowing all along that the currency had no inherent worth and that its value “depended purely on marketing,” the defendants “profited tens of billions of dollars” as a result at the expense of other Dogecoin investors, the complaint claimed.
Keith Johnson, the petitioner, requested $172 billion in addition to $86 billion in damages for losses he incurred by trading DOGE starting in 2019. According to a story from the time, Johnson also defended a number of other investors who had lost money investing in Dogecoin through the case.
Dogecoin foundation and several others under the radar
Now that the litigation has grown, numerous additional parties have been added to the mix. Seven additional investor plaintiffs and six other defendants have been added, according to a recently filed amended lawsuit.
One new defendant was the non-profit organisation that oversees and supports Dogecoin, the Dogecoin Foundation, and the other was Musk’s tunnel construction company, Boring Co.
Musk made no concessions after the complaint was submitted in June. In actuality, he had stated that he would keep supporting the memecoin.
Now, however, the updated complaint has incorporated this digression and his interview claim that the nearby factory workers had “asked him” for their help. Reuters reports,
“Shortly afterward, Musk, the world’s richest person, tweeted that he would “keep supporting Dogecoin,” and in an interview said “people that work around the factory at SpaceX or Tesla” asked him for that support, the amended complaint said.”
The $258 billion in damages is treble the expected fall in meme token’s market value from May 2021, according to Reuters, who also made this revelation. Notably, Elon Musk made an appearance on Saturday Night Live around that time, and the hype around that event drove Dogecoin’s price up to a level as high as $0.739.
Since then, the token has not been able to recover. At press time on Thursday, DOGE was trading at roughly $0.06, down by almost 0.77% over the last 24 hours.