​Elon Musk denies accusations of manipulating the Dogecoin rate

What’s new? Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk denies owning cryptocurrency wallets that may have been linked to questionable Dogecoin (DOGE) meme token transactions. On June 9, Musk’s lawyer Alex Spiro sent a letter to the plaintiff's lawyer Evan Spencer challenging the allegations and questioning his competence as a lawyer. The New York Post (NYP) reported about it, in whose possession the letter appeared.

Material on the NYP website

What else is known? In his letter, Spiro writes that Spencer’s claims that the wallets belong to the defendant are baseless and incorrect. The lawyer refers to the complaint, which mentions a tweet Musk posted on February 10, 2021. In it, the entrepreneur wrote that he bought Dogecoin for his son. The complaint also reported that at the peak of the asset’s value, a wallet allegedly owned by Musk held more than $25 billion in DOGE.

“This case will be fought in court, not the media. The Plaintiffs and I are more confident than ever that the case will be successful,” Spencer told NYP reporters.

Case details. Elon Musk is accused of insider trading in the Dogecoin meme token. On May 31, a group of investors amended last year’s pyramid scheme lawsuit. The document, filed in Manhattan federal court, says Musk used Twitter posts, paid online influencers, his appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” show in 2021, and other “publicity stunts” to profitably trade at their expense through several Dogecoin wallets controlled by Tesla or the billionaire himself.

Investors said that Musk sold about $124 million worth of Dogecoin in April after he replaced the Twitter logo with an image of a Shiba Inu dog, which is the mascot of the meme token. This led to a 68% increase in the asset.

The plaintiffs accuse Musk of pumping Dogecoin by 36 000% over two years and making “tens of billions of dollars” in profits at the expense of other investors. According to the lawsuit filed in June and later expanded in September 2022, market manipulation and insider trading allowed the businessman to defraud investors and promote himself and his companies. Investors are seeking $258 billion in pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages from Musk.

As of June 16, 10:50 UTC, DOGE is trading at $0,06162 on Binance, having gained 1,52% per day. The asset ranks eighth among the largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization, with a value of $8,6 billion.