Dogecoin Investors Accuse Elon Musk of Insider Trading in Latest Lawsuit Filing

In the proposed class action lawsuit filed by Dogecoin investors, world’s second richest Elon Musk has been accused for insider trading and manipulating the Dogecoin cryptocurrency while costing the investors billions of dollars in losses.

As per the Wednesday night filing in the Manhattan federal court, investors said that Musk engaged in different “publicity stunts” such as making Twitter posts, appearing on on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" in 2021, paying online influencers, in order to trade profitability at the investors’ expense via different Dogecoin wallets controlled by him or Tesla.

The filing notes that a "deliberate course of carnival barking, market manipulation and insider trading” allowed Elon Musk to defraud investors while promoting himself and his companies.

In the filing, investors also claim that Elon Musk sold a staggering $124 million worth of Dogecoins in April this year after replacing the Twitter blue bird logo with the Dogecoin (DOGE) Shiba Inu dog logo that led to a 30% jump in the DOGE price back then.

In the filing, the investors’ wrote: “This is a securities fraud class action arising from a deliberate course of carnival barking market manipulation and insider trading by the world’s richest man Elon Musk”.

Elon Musk has been one of the vocal supporters of cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin and Dogecoin to a greater extent. In the past, he has also shown personal interest in enhancing the performance of the Dogecoin blockchain while using DOGE for making payments.

Ever since Musk has acquired Twitter last year in October 2022, speculations have been ripe that Musk might integrate DOGE payments into Twitter at some point. Although Musk has teased about Dogecoin several times, he hasn’t commented on it yet.

The recent allegations are part of a proposed third amended complaint in an ongoing lawsuit that began in June of the previous year. Musk and Tesla previously attempted to dismiss the second amended complaint, considering it a "fanciful work of fiction". However, on May 26, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein indicated that he would likely allow the third amended complaint, suggesting that the defendants would not be prejudiced.

Earlier this year, Musk and his team had requested the court to dismiss the second amended complaint filed by the DOGE investors calling it a “fanciful work of friction”.