Dogecoin Investor Sues Elon Musk For $258 Billion Over Allegedly Running A Pyramid Scheme

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly been sued for over $258 billion Thursday for allegedly orchestrating a pyramid scheme in support of the meme-based cryptocurrency DOGE.

Reuters reported Thursday that the world's richest person has been sued by a Dogecoin investor who has filed a complaint in a federal court in Manhattan. The plaintiff, Keith Johnson, accused the SpaceX CEO of supporting Dogecoin to drive its prices higher, only to cash out and let the prices drop down.

"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."

Johnson has yet to reveal on what evidence is he accusing Musk of orchestrating a pyramid scheme in support of Dogecoin. However, he is seeking $86 billion in damages, and taking into account the decline of the price of the meme coin since May 2021, wants this amount to be tripled.

Additionally, the complaint said the sell-off for DOGE was initiated when Musk hosted the NBC show "Saturday Night Live," and while playing a fictitious financial expert on the show's "Weekend Update" segment, he called Dogecoin "a hustle." This is when the downfall for DOGE began.

As of 10:59 p.m. ET, Dogecoin is trading at $0.056 and the meme coin is nearly 92% low from its all-time of $0.73 high witnessed on May 8, 2021.

In his Time Person of the Year 2021 interview, Musk said that Dogecoin is suited for day-to-day transactions while Bitcoin is not suited for the same. He added that BTC can be called a store of value. Musk also revealed at the B-Word Conference that his firm owns Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE).