Elon Musk Is Being Sued For $258 Billion For Allegedly Inflating The Price Of Dogecoin

On top of all the other things going on with Elon Musk, he's now being sued for a whopping $258 billion from an angry Dogecoin investor who claims Musk was part of a pyramid scheme to inflate the price of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency.

The suit filed by Keith Johnson argues that Musk attempted through his online posts to convince others that Dogecoin was a sound investment, when in fact, according to Johnson, Dogecoin has "no value at all."

"Defendants were aware since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value yet promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading," the complaint said. "Musk used his pedestal as World's Richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for profit, exposure and amusement."

In addition to his astronomical demands in damages, which total nearly 5 times as much as the $44 billion Musk promised to pay for Twitter, Johnson is demanding a court order barring Musk from promoting Dogecoin, and that New York State regulates cryptocurrency trading as it does gambling. Johnson is seeking to make the lawsuit a class-action lawsuit as a means to represent others who have lost money after investing in Dogecoin.

Johnson arrived at the $258 billion number by demanding triple the $86 billion he believes represents the decline in Dogecoin's market value since May of 2021.

The lawsuit highlights both the mountain of problems for Musk as well as the growing woes of the crypto community. As a meme-coin, Dogecoin traded at a relatively low price until Musk jumped on the bandwagon in the early 2020s, in part leading to a massive boom in the currency in early 2021. Right now, Dogecoin is back down to its pre-boom price levels, leaving investors in a financial rut.

Despite the lawsuit and plummeting price, Musk tweeted he will "keep supporting Dogecoin," though this time, his tweet seemed to have little effect on the market.