In a move that may have looked like an April Fool’s Day joke from the end of April, users checking Twitter this week discovered that the familiar bird logo had been replaced with a shiba inu – the internet famous dog that is also the symbol of the Dogecoin cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency soared in value, with Dogecoin gaining almost 30% overnight after Twitter changed its logo on Monday – although it remains well below its 2021 peak. Elon Muskis a long-time propellant of Dogecoin and is currently facing a lawsuit accusing him of manipulating its value.
It was unclear if the logo change was meant to be permanent or when the original Twitter “Larry T. Bird”— named after Larry Bird of the Celtics — would make a reappearance on the site. CBS News took to Twitter for comment and received an auto-reply with a smiling poop emoji.
“As promised,” Musk tweeted on Monday, referring to a joke a user made a year ago asking for the logo change.
The idea came about after Musk, a longtime critic of Twitter before buying it, complained about the site, and one user replied that he should “just buy Twitter” and “change the logo of a bird to a doge”. The future CEO then replied: “Haha, that would be [be] sickkk.”
Musk also tweeted several memes referencing the change.
The logo change caught the attention of users because Musk faces a lawsuit alleging that he used Twitter as a “pump-and-dump” scheme to boost Dogecoin and profit at the expense of other investors. His lawyers ask for the dismissal.
According to the class action, Musk raised the value of Dogecoin over several years — through countless tweets and memes — only to let it crash after a “Saturday Night Live” appearance in which he referenced the cryptocurrency. even as a “jostling”.
They claim that Musk and his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, made billions of dollars in profits while other investors suffered, and accuse him of “falsely and misleadingly asserting that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when that it has no value”.
“The defendants knew since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value but promoted Dogecoin to profit from its trading,” the complaint states. “Musk used his pedestal as the richest man in the world to exploit and manipulate the Dogecoin pyramid scheme for profit, exposure and amusement.”
“Because of this fraudulent venture,” the lawsuit claims, investors “lost approximately $86 billion.”
Musk’s attorneys disputed those charges.
“There is nothing illegal about tweeting words of support or funny images about a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market capitalization of nearly $10 billion,” they wrote in a formal request to dismiss the lawsuit, filed on Friday. They argue that Musk’s statements, such as “Dogecoin Rulz” or “No highs, no lows, only Doge”, were vague and subjective, and do not constitute “misrepresentations or omissions”.
“This court should put an end to the plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint,” they wrote.
–Irina Ivanova contributed reporting.