Shortly after Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski expressed his concern over tweets promoting Bitcoin, reports revealed that the SEC is investigating Musk over DOGE tweets.
The price of DOGE has declined in reaction to the news that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently investigating Tesla’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk over Dogecoin tweets.
Recently, Elon Musk has been advocating for cryptocurrencies through his Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) posts. Last month, the CEO of the electric vehicle company revealed his interest in the leading crypto asset, adding the Bitcoin hashtag to his Twitter bio. Musk’s action sparked several comments in the crypto community, fueling an increase in the price of BTC.
SEC vs Musk Promoting DOGE
Shortly after including the Bitcoin hashtag on his Twitter bio, Musk posted several tweets, along with images, promoting DOGE. While the CEO’s continuous tweets on DOGE appear as jokes, the posts have been influencing the price of the digital asset. The price of Dogecoin has continually increased in reaction to Musk’s several posts. Over the past month, DOGE has surged more than 500%.
The cryptocurrency, which started as a meme, now has a more than $6.6 billion market value. At the time of writing, DOGE is down 8.55% to $0.05113.
Following a series of tweets that fueled the price of DOGE, the SEC is now investigating Musk over potential security violations regarding the cryptocurrency. On the 25th of February, financial newswire First Squawk announced in a tweet.
SEC IS SAID TO INVESTIGATE TESLA CHIEF EXECUTIVE MUSK FOR HIS TWEETS ON DOGECOIN: SOURCES FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER #Dogecoins #Tesla
— First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) February 25, 2021
Back in 2018, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Musk regarding a comment he made on Twitter, saying that he was considering a decision to take Tesla private. In the tweet, the CEO said:
“Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
The SEC reacted to Musk’s claim that the funding was secured. Eventually, the case was settled, with Tesla and Musk paying $20 million fines each.
Klarna CEO Calls For Regulations On Tweets Promoting Bitcoin
Recently, the CEO of European fintech giant Klarna, Sebastian Siemiatkowski, expressed his worry over tweets promoting Bitcoin. The CEO’s comment came about 24 hours before news on Musk’s investigation with the SEC.
In an interview with CNBC on the 24th of February, Siemiatkowski said he is “deeply worried” that such tweets could mislead retail traders. Speaking further in an interview with CNBC on the 24th of February, Klarna CEO called on regulators to caution such tweets to prevent people from potential losses.
As stated in a CNBC report, Siemiatkowski explained:
“It’s great that we can introduce new financial products and so forth. But they need to follow the standard regulations that we put in place and somebody needs to police that to make sure those are being met because otherwise what we will have is a lot of consumers losing a lot of money. And that’s just unfortunately what’s happening.”
Other news about cryptocurrencies can be found here.
Ibukun is a crypto/finance writer interested in passing relevant information, using non-complex words to reach all kinds of audience. Apart from writing, she likes to see movies, cook, and explore restaurants in the city of Lagos, where she resides.
