Is the SEC investigating Elon Musk’s Dogecoin tweets?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be under investigation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission over tweets in which he promoted Dogecoin to cryptocurrency investors.

SEC Restricted Musk in 2019

Rumors of the investigation were initially reported on Twitter by First Squawk, an audio-based financial news agency.

SEC IS INVESTIGATING THE BOSS OF TESLA, EXECUTIVE MUSK FOR ITS TWEETS IN DOGECOIN: FAMILY SOURCES WITH THE MATTER #Dogecoins #Tesla

– First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) February 25, 2021

The rumor has not been confirmed. However, there is enough context to speculate about an investigation.

The SEC is already known to be monitoring Musk’s tweets. In 2018, Musk exaggerated the likelihood of a Tesla private offering, leading to a deal with the SEC. As part of the resulting deal, the SEC began to restrict and pre-approve Musk’s tweets regarding business activity starting in 2019.

These facts make it plausible that the SEC, which is extremely interested in regulating cryptocurrency, is monitoring Musk’s tweets when they relate to Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Musk continues to tweet

Despite rumors of an investigation, Musk continues to tweet. His most recent Dogecoin tweet was sent at 5:00 am on February 24.

Literally pic.twitter.com/XBAUqiVsPH

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 24, 2021

While it may seem unlikely that Musk would tweet about Dogecoin if he was under investigation by the SEC, Musk is more likely to disregard the investigation.

In 2018, Musk infamously stated that “[does] do not respect the SEC. ”He also added that none of his tweets have been censored by the SEC since the regulator made a deal with Tesla. As such, an SEC investigation is entirely plausible, even if Musk has not been silent about Dogecoin.

In any case, the rumors appear to have moderately affected Dogecoin’s prices. DOGE fell 5.7% in the last 24 hours, compared to Bitcoin’s relatively stable variation of 0.1% over the same period.

Without any official confirmation from Musk or the SEC, speculation may continue to affect prices.

At the time of writing, this author had less than $ 75 in Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins.