Dogecoin investor seeks $258-billion in damages from Elon Musk over losses in 'pyramid scheme'

Petitioner Keith Johnson said he lost money in Dogecoin investments after being in roped in what he describes as “Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme” by Elon Musk

ET Now Digital

Updated Jun 17, 2022, 12:21 IST

Dogecoin investors sues Elon Musk for 258 billion

A Dogecoin investor filed a lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk for heavily promoting and abetting a “dogecoin pyramid scheme” which caused heavy financial losses to scores of investors .

Keith Johnson said he lost money in Dogecoin investments after being in roped in what he describes as “Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme”.

He petitioned a New York court to admit his motion as a class action lawsuit on behalf of the who have suffered losses in dogecoin investments since 2019.

Johnson claims that investors in dogecoin which as started as a joke lost over $86 billion since Musk began promoting the digital token. He is seeking a total of $258 billion in compensation from Musk on behalf of these investors. The figure comprises the estimated losses of $86 billion and additional $172 billion, which is double the amount of original loss.

Dogecoin was founded in 2013 by creators an “ironic response” to cryptocurrencies and a meme image of a Shiba Inu dog.

The meme coin has crashed to a fraction of its all-time peak of $0.722; it was last seen trading at 0.05675 on CoinDesk.

Musk has rooted for dogecoin on multiple occasions. He even hinted that the digital token may be accepted for Tesla cars at sometime in future.

In a February interview, Musk said "The transaction value of Bitcoin is low and the cost per transaction is high. At least at a space level, it is suitable as a store of value. But fundamentally, Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency," he said.

Musk also confirmed that he has a significant personal investment into bitcoin on top of Tesla's investment and he has smaller Ethereum and Dogecoin holdings.

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