Keith Johnson is leading a massive lawsuit against not only Tesla and SpaceX but also both firms' head executives, Elon Musk, in accordance with a supposed "Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme." Johnson is claiming that Musk and his companies are providing a supposed illegal racketeering endeavor in the hopes of inflating the price of the cryptocurrency known as Dogecoin.
"Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all," reads Johnson's official complaint, which was officially filed on Thursday, June 16, within the federal court of Manhattan.
Johnson is only one of several individuals fighting for their money, as the self-titled "American citizen who was defrauded out of money by defendants' Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme" will represent a group of Dogecoin traders who have lost money on the risk asset dating back to 2019. Johnson's suit asks for a total of $86 billion in damages alongside $172 billion in triple damages.
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The suit also intends to disallow Musk and his various companies from further encouraging consumers to purchase Dogecoin. It also entails the declaration of Dogecoin trading as a function of gambling under New York and US law.
"Dogecoin is not a currency, stock, or security. It's not backed by gold, other precious metal, or anything at all," the lawsuit reads. "You can't eat it, grow it, or wear it. It doesn't pay interest or dividend. It has no unique utility compared to other cryptocurrencies...It's not secured by a government or private equity."
According to Forbes's list of the world's real-time billionaires, Musk's worth sits at $198.5 billion. The Tesla and SpaceX executive has not made any official comment on the matter, as Musk has been convening with Twitter employees, which seemingly didn't go down so well. One Twitter staff in attendance cited that "the majority of the reactions on Twitter's slack messaging board were negative in nature."
Spokespeople from either Tesla or SpaceX have likewise remained silent regarding Johnson's lawsuit. Tesla first started allowing merchandise payments via Dogecoin earlier this year. The automaker's support page has an entire list of necessary questions about the utilization and capabilities surrounding Dogecoin's integration through Tesla.
For his part, Musk has been vocal about his adoration not merely for cryptocurrencies in general but also for Dogecoin. A Tweet posted in Feb. last year sees the executive citing "Dogecoin is the people's crypto," adding in a reply tweet, "No need to be a gigachad to own." Amid his discussions surrounding the purchase of Twitter itself, Musk has been candid on a potential Dogecoin integration, allowing users to pay for their Twitter Blue subscription with the crypto.
As of writing, the price of Dogecoin has hit a slump for the day, currently sitting at a $0.057 price point. It has experienced a 10.36% downtick for the day and has been in the red by about 67% for the year overall. It's important to note, too, that the crypto markets are experiencing their own so-called crypto winter, yet despite the mass selloff, Dogecoin hit a high of 4.79% amid Thursday afternoon trading before nosediving.
