In federal court papers filed in Lower Manhattan in New York, complainant Keith Johnson named Musk along with his electric car company Tesla and his space tourism corporation SpaceX in the suit.
Johnson, an American citizen, demands $86 billion in damages as well as triple damages of $172 billion for losses acquired from trading dogecoin since 2019. He is looking to represent a group of people who have lost money investing in dogecoin.
The lawsuit also requires that Musk, Tesla and SpaceX stop promoting dogecoin.
On Thursday, June 16, one dogecoin was worth just six cents – a far cry from its high of 74 cents in May 2021. (Related: Spike in value of meme crypto dogecoin raises bubble fears.)
"Dogecoin is not a currency, stock or security. It's not backed by gold, other precious metal or anything at all. You can’t eat it, grow it or wear it," the court filing stated.
"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 entity. It's simply a fraud whereby 'greater fools' are deceived into buying the coin at a higher price," added the lawsuit.
Musk, the world's richest man whose net worth was estimated at $202.9 billion, has not replied to the lawsuit.
Early this year, Musk said that Tesla had started accepting dogecoin for transactions in its online store. The pronouncement sent the value of dogecoin rising.
Tesla also used up $1.5 billion on bitcoin in February 2021, a move the electric car maker said would give "more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash." The price of bitcoin was hovering in the $30,000 to $40,000 range at the time of the disclosure.
Just last week, Musk spoke on the current collapse in digital asset prices and replied to a meme disclosing the next sector of the economy he anticipates to go down.
"Cryptonight," Musk tweeted on June 14.
Musk also reacted to a meme posted by dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus. The cartoon image displayed the grim reaper coming to a door labeled "real estate" after earlier making grisly stops in rooms marked "stocks" and "cryptocurrency."
"True," Musk said in a reply to the post.
Musk advertises crypto investments
The billionaire is frequently advertising his investments in cryptocurrencies. In March, he announced that he "won't sell" his holdings in bitcoin, ethereum and dogecoin despite soaring inflation and economic doubt that has led many investors to sell high-risk assets.
The world's richest man has never revealed how much of his wealth is tied to crypto.
Dogecoin was trading 4.79 percent higher on Thursday, June 16, while other famous cryptocurrencies like bitcoin were trading lower.
According to Coinbase data, bitcoin dropped 1.07 percent to $21,062.88. Ethereum moved up 0.53 percent to $1,113.69.
Musk was also charged on Thursday by a Tesla shareholder, who blamed the billionaire and Tesla's board of directors for disregarding employee complaints of racism and sexual harassment.
The lawsuit was introduced Thursday by complainant Solomon Chau in Texas, where Tesla's headquarters is located. Chau said an unaddressed "toxic workplace culture" at the company has created "irreparable" reputational damage and financial harm.
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Watch the video below to know more about Elon Musk jumping aboard dogecoin.
This video is from the Corstet channel on Brighteon.com.
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