By
Steve Muchoki
April 23rd, 2024
Amid a recent Elon Musk-induced Dogecoin frenzy, a class action lawsuit also accuses the billionaire of owning a secret DOGE wallet.
The latest Elon Musk and Dogecoin (DOGE) Twitter hype has drawn attention to a mysterious wallet that once custodied $24 billion in DOGE. On April 3, the outspoken Tesla CEO replaced Twitter’s logo with Dogecoin’s, triggering an immediate crypto bullish run. DOGE’s price reportedly surged approximately 30% to $0.09 from $0.07, with speculations suggesting the coin could become a Twitter payment option.
Investors who previously lost money on Dogecoin allegedly due to Musk’s social media antics claim the mysterious wallet belongs to him. In a class action suit against the billionaire, these investors claim that the wallet, known as DH5ya, is Musk’s personal wallet. Citing “information and belief,” the plaintiffs alleged that Elon Musk opened the Dogecoin wallet back in 2019. These allegations buttress a speculative Twitter post by an on-chain researcher last November, claiming that Musk owned DH5ya.
Class Action Lawsuit Points Out Tell-Tale Signs that Connect Elon Musk to Dogecoin Wallet
Plaintiffs of the New York federal court class action lawsuit also pointed out ‘hints’ in DH5ya’s transactions that link it to Musk. Such hints include the wallet executing a 28.061971 DOGE transaction, which cryptically indicates Musk’s June 28, 1971 birthday. Furthermore, the lawsuit also alleged that another DH5ya-facilitated transaction spelled out the phrase “Hi Elon.” Yet still, a third transaction involved 80085 coins which cryptically spells “BOOBS,” a word typical of the billionaire’s vulgar humor.
According to plaintiffs, there were six transactions involving 69 coins and two transactions with 420 coins attributed to DH5ya.
However, the Tesla CEO denied the claims, insisting that DH5ya belongs to the multifaceted financial services platform Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD). Robinhood refrained from confirming or denying whether it owns the formerly well-heeled crypto wallet. Although DH5ya held $24 billion worth of DOGE last May, the wallet currently holds just over 50,300 DOGE valued at $5,000.
Dogecoin currently has a market cap of $13.7 billion and ranks among the top seven digital currencies by market cap. The canine-themed token most notably ranks higher than Cardano (ADA) and Polygon (MATIC) but is just behind Ripple coin XRP.
Other canine-themed crypto benefited from DOGE’s bullish momentum, with Shiba Inu (SHIB) climbing 6.7% and Dogelon Mars (ELON) advancing 10%. In addition, Floki (FLOKI), another Musk favorite, also saw a substantial 14% increase.
Musk Dogecoin Price Manipulation Accusations
Musk’s decision to replace the Twitter logo with Dogecoin’s logo fuels longstanding accusations that the Tesla CEO manipulates crypto prices. For instance, DOGE’s price trajectory has a long history of being amenable to Musk’s actions. The billionaire’s relationship with the crypto is the focal point of the class action lawsuit. According to the aggrieved DOGE buyers, Musk is orchestrating a pyramid scheme by hyping the dog-themed digital currency. The suit read in part:
“After the launch and initial coin offerings of the dogecoin investment contract, Musk became the leader of this multi-billion-dollar racketeering enterprise which intentionally manipulated the market to drive the price of dogecoin from $0.002 to $0.73 in two years, an increase of 36,000%.”
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