Elon Musk sparks another DOGE rally, but Bitcoin maximalists are not pleased.
Dogecoin (DOGE) has surged to the spotlight again thanks to another one of Elon Musk’s Twitter antics. In an unexpected stunt, the Twitter chief briefly swapped Twitter’s blue bird mascot with the famous Shiba Inu logo of the DOGE cryptocurrency. It led the memecoin to surge as high as 35% in a few hours.
However, not all were enthused by the billionaire’s actions. Head of programs at Bitcoin Magazine Alex McShane, reacting to the stunt, took a shot at Musk, slamming DOGE as an unregistered security and a shitcoin.
Pumping centralized unregistered securities again @elonmusk ?
Bitcoin > shitcoin. pic.twitter.com/gumDFYzjx8
— McShane (@mcshane_writes) April 3, 2023
McShane’s comments elicited a lot of flak from the DOGE community, including from the memecoin’s co-creator.
Billy Markus Responds
As highlighted above, Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus, popularly known as Shibetoshi Nakamoto on Twitter, was on hand to respond to McShane’s claims yesterday. The programmer, refuting the statements from the Bitcoin maximalist, pointed out that DOGE shares the same codebase with Bitcoin. Furthermore, he highlighted that there was no token pre-mine and that it was made as a Bitcoin parody, implying no expectation of profits.
Consequently, Markus added, “if dogecoin is a security, bitcoin is a security.”
The Dogecoin co-creator urged McShane to focus his attacks elsewhere, like at U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who recently hinged her political campaign on anti-crypto rhetoric.
dogecoin is almost 100% bitcoin code, with a dog on it. fairly released, no premine, made as a literal joke.
if dogecoin is a security, bitcoin is a security.
if you don’t want to self-own, maybe don’t attack doge and attack elizabeth warren.
— Shibetoshi Nakamoto (@BillyM2k) April 4, 2023
Meanwhile, McShane is not the only one to allege that DOGE is a security.
The Multi Billion-Dollar DOGE Case
It bears mentioning that Musk is currently involved in a $258 billion lawsuit where the plaintiff alleges that DOGE is a security. A claim that the billionaire’s legal team has refuted.
The investor seeks compensation after claiming to have lost money investing in the doggy-themed memecoin due to Musk’s tweets. As reported by Reuters yesterday, the defendant’s lawyers have asked a Manhattan judge to dismiss the case arguing that the billionaire’s tweets are not financial advice.
Musk’s love story with Dogecoin is no news, and the billionaire appears undeterred by legal concerns surrounding his cryptocurrency promotion. Recall that his takeover of Twitter had sparked similar excitement within the DOGE community as holders envisioned an integration of the cryptocurrency for payments on the micro-blogging platform. While the Twitter boss has stoked the flame of these speculations, there is no indication that such an integration is coming anytime soon.
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