Payments

Elon Musk changes Twitter icon to Dogecoin amid $258B lawsuit

Image via Adobe Stock

April 4, 2023

Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and Tesla, has changed the Twitter app logo from its traditional blue bird to a Shiba Inu dog, the symbol for the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

Before Musk purchased Twitter, a user suggested he should change the icon to which he replied, "That would [be] sickkk," according to a NPR report. Following the update, the value of Dogecoin shot up on April 3 from under a cent to 10 cents, according to Coindesk.

Musk posted a screenshot of this interaction on Twitter and said, "As promised." However, Musk is facing a $258 billion class-action lawsuit where he is accused of taking part in a pyramid scene to promote Dogecoin.

Investors accused Musk of driving up Dogecoin's price more than 36,000% via his tweets and then allow it to crash. They also pointed to his appearance on Saturday Night Live where he played a fictional financial expert who called Dogecoin a "hustle," according to a Reuters report.

Musk is attempting to get the lawsuit thrown out on grounds that his statements on Twitter such as, "Dogecoin Rulz" and "no highs, no lows Only Doge," were too vague to be fraudulent.

His lawyers have called the lawsuit a "fanciful work of fiction" over Musk's "innocuous and often silly tweets" about Dogecoin.

The $258 billion figure represents three times the estimated decline in Dogecoin's market value in the 13 months prior to the filing of the lawsuit.