Twitter's historic bluebird took a few days off.
Monday evening, March 3, Twitter users saw the social network's logo take on the appearance of a dog's head.
It is actually the emblem of Dogecoin, an American cryptocurrency whose merits Elon Musk has long praised.
In the process, the billionaire published a series of evocative tweets.
In a montage, we can see the dog, symbol of Dogecoin, undergoing a police check.
On the driver's identity papers, a photograph of the Twitter Bluebird.
The dog, however, assures that it is
"
an old photograph
".
Elon Musk also posted an exchange with a follower suggesting in March 2022 that he take over Twitter and change its logo, with the caption
"
as promised
"
.
Elon Musk quickly tweeted out his own joke.
screenshot
Dogecoin soars
And the joke had its effect on the stock market.
Dogecoin price soared, jumping more than 25% overnight from $0.07 to over $0.09 according to the CoinMarketCap database.
A surge certainly impressive… But which is nothing compared to the price of Dogecoin a few years ago.
The cryptocurrency has indeed lost more than 86% of its value since its historic peak at $0.65 in May 2021.
This change seems to act as a provocation on the part of Elon Musk, while the latter has been the target, since June 2022, of a complaint from investors who believe that they have been harmed by the advertising made by the Dogecoin billionaire.
They accuse him of having given
"
legitimacy
"
to this currency considered a "shitcoin", a worthless asset while having artificially increased the value of the asset by excessively promoting the asset through tweets .
258 billion dollars in damages are claimed from the richest man in the world.
The value of the asset had indeed jumped after a series of glowing tweets from Elon Musk… Before starting to decline shortly after the broadcast of a satirical show in which Elon Musk described cryptocurrency in a sketch
“
scam
”
.
Read alsoDogecoin: Elon Musk's joke that plunges the price
On Friday March 31, Elon Musk's legal team filed a motion to have the complaint dismissed.
According to the lawyers of the South African-born entrepreneur, the plaintiffs have not demonstrated how their client's statements in favor of Dogecoin constitute fraud.
"
There is nothing illegal about tweeting words of support or funny pictures about a legitimate cryptocurrency
that continues to have a market capitalization of nearly
$10 billion ,
"
they said, as quoted by Reuters.
“
This court should put an end to the fantasy of the plaintiffs and dismiss the complaint.
“,
they added.