After Twitter changed its logo from a bird to a doge, the price of Dogecoin cryptocurrency surged

In a transfer that will have appeared like a late April Fools joke, customers checking Twitter this week discovered the acquainted fowl brand was changed with a Shiba Inu — the internet-famous canine that is additionally the image of Dogecoin cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency surged in worth, with Dogecoin gaining almost 30% in a single day after Twitter modified its brand Monday — although it stays far beneath its 2021 peak. Twitter’s proprietor, Elon Musk, has been a longtime booster of Dogecoin and is at present going through a lawsuit accusing him of manipulating its worth.

It was unknown if the emblem change was meant to be everlasting or when Twitter’s unique “Larry T. Hen” — named after Larry Bird of the Celtics — would make a reappearance on the location. CBS Information requested Twitter for remark and acquired an auto-reply with a smiling poop emoji.

“As promised,” Musk tweeted Monday, referencing a joke a consumer made a yr in the past requesting the emblem change.

The concept took place after Musk, a longtime critic of Twitter earlier than he bought it, complained concerning the website, and a consumer replied that he ought to “simply purchase twitter” and “change the emblem from a fowl to a doge.” The longer term CEO then responded, “Haha that will [be] sickkk.” 

 Musk additionally tweeted a number of memes referencing the change. 

The emblem change caught customers’ consideration as Musk faces a lawsuit alleging he used Twitter as a “pump-and-dump” scheme to spice up Dogecoin and revenue on the expense of different traders. His legal professionals are in search of to get the case dismissed.

Based on the class-action go well with, Musk drove up the worth of Dogecoin over the course of a number of years — by means of numerous tweets and memes — solely to let it crash after a “Saturday Night time Dwell” look wherein he referred to the meme cryptocurrency as a “hustle.” 

They declare that Musk and his firms, SpaceX and Tesla, made billions of {dollars} in earnings whereas different traders suffered, and accuse him of “falsely and deceptively claiming that Dogecoin is a legit funding when it has no worth in any respect.”

“Defendants have been conscious since 2019 that Dogecoin had no worth but promoted Dogecoin to revenue from its buying and selling,” the grievance reads. “Musk used his pedestal as World’s Richest man to function and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme for revenue, publicity and amusement.”

“Because of this fraudulent enterprise,” the go well with claims, traders “have misplaced roughly $86 billion.”

Musk’s legal professionals disputed these accusations. 

“There may be nothing illegal about tweeting phrases of assist for, or humorous photos about, a legit cryptocurrency that continues to carry a market cap of almost $10 billion,” they wrote in a proper request to dismiss the go well with, filed Friday. They preserve that Musk’s statements, comparable to “Dogecoin Rulz” or “No highs, no lows, solely Doge,” have been obscure and subjective, and don’t quantity to “misrepresentations or omissions.”

“This courtroom ought to put a cease to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the grievance,” they wrote.

–Irina Ivanova contributed reporting.