Key highlights:
- Rumors are floating around that the SEC is looking into Elon Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin
- Elon Musk has had trouble with the SEC in the past
First Squawk, a news service for traders, recently cited “sources familiar with the matter” as saying that U.S. securities regulator SEC is looking into Elon Musk’s tweets about the Dogecoin cryptocurrency. It’s no secret that Elon musk’s frequent featuring of Dogecoin has had an impact on the DOGE markets – with over 48 million Twitter followers, Musk’s tweets have a massive reach.
Elon Musk had previously already been investigated by the SEC because of his social media activity. In 2018, Musk said in a tweet that he was considering taking Tesla private at $420 per share – since the company’s shares were trading at a lower price, some investors saw this as an opportunity to buy.
In the end, the two parties achieved a settlement, and Musk and his company had to each pay a $20 million fine. As a part of the mentioned settlement, Elon had to resign from his position as the chairman of the board. It was likely that Musk wanted to pay Tesla’s fine as well. Musk decided to buy $20 million of Tesla’s shares, as he couldn’t pay the fine directly on Tesla’s behalf. Musk eventually even made money from the agreement due to the price increase in Tesla s stocks.
SEC accuses Musk of Dogecoin market manipulation this time
Musk seems to have developed quite an interest in cryptocurrency, and Tesla even purchased $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin earlier in February. Even before stating that he is a supporter of Bitcoin, Musk often made comments about Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that was created as a light-hearted parody of Bitcoin. Musk has also talked about launching mining rigs for the meme crypto coin with his children. While Musk’s mentions of Dogecoin most often come in the form of memes and jokes, they can still have a noticeable impact on the DOGE market. Now, according to First Squawk, the SEC is concerned about Musk’s tweets on Dogecoin.
However, Musk does not seem to be concerned. In a response to a tweet about the SEC’s rumored investigation, he responded: “I hope they do! It would be awesome”.
