Bitcoin News and Finance
Elon Musk Could Face SEC Investigation Over Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy, Lawyers Warn Skip to main content

Elon Musk Could Face SEC Investigation Over Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy, Lawyers Warn

Elon Musk Could Face SEC Investigation Over Tesla’s Bitcoin Buy, Lawyers Warn

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could investigate Elon Musk over Tesla’s $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase, some legal experts have warned, including a former SEC enforcement officer. Given the timing of Tesla’s bitcoin purchase and Musk’s multiple tweets on the subject, some say that the SEC will look into the matter.

Elon Musk Could Face an SEC Probe

Regulators could probe Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his company’s bitcoin purchase, the Telegraph reported Tuesday. Last week, an SEC filing reveals that Tesla bought a substantial amount of bitcoin in January. “We invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin … we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future,” the filing reads.

Doug Davison, a partner at Linklaters and a former branch chief of the SEC’s division of enforcement, explained:

It would not be surprising – given the focus on the chief executive’s tweets, bitcoin pricing and recent dramatic market moves – for the SEC to ask questions about the facts and circumstances here.

The Tesla and Spacex CEO has been tweeting about bitcoin and also dogecoin. On Jan. 29, he changed his Twitter profile to just say “#bitcoin” and then tweeted, “In retrospect, it was inevitable.” A few days later, he publicly endorsed bitcoin, stating that the cryptocurrency “is a good thing,” and that “bitcoin is really on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people.” His Twitter profile no longer says #bitcoin.

Vitor Constâncio, who served as vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB) until May 2018, explained in a tweet: “It was not disclosed when Tesla had made this investment. In December, Musk said that Tesla could buy bitcoin, and this was followed by many statements that he supported bitcoin.” He added:

Bitcoin kept going up & Tesla investment has appreciated. The SEC will look into this.

Some believe that the SEC will not find anything of concern by investigating Musk. Among them is Thomas Gorman, a partner at the international law firm Dorsey Whitney and a former senior counsel at the SEC. He expects that the SEC staff looking into Musk’s comments on social media would find that they only reflect his personal beliefs.

However, a number of people believe that Musk manipulated the BTC price in order to buy cheap coins. Among those who believe that the SEC has a cause for concern is NYU Stern School professor Nouriel Roubini, aka “Dr. Doom,” who has been a long-term bitcoin skeptic. He called Musk’s action a form of market manipulation, insisting that the SEC should investigate the Tesla CEO.

Musk has gotten into trouble with the SEC before. In 2018, the securities regulator charged the Tesla CEO with securities fraud related to a tweet about his electric car company. Musk and Tesla agreed to settle with the regulator and paid a $40 million fine. However, less than six months later, the SEC charged Musk over a different tweet that the agency claimed violated the previous settlement agreement.

Do you think the SEC will investigate Elon Musk over Tesla’s bitcoin buy? Let us know in the comments section below.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

On September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that he wanted to see how large the damage could be and said “it is bad.” 6 Lightning Network Custodial Services Attacked, Researcher Discloses Findings to Offenders Prior to Public Disclosure A Redditor called Reckless Satoshi published a disclosure post on r/bitcoin this past Saturday and disclosed how he had found a vulnerability with routing fees and some of the Lightning Network’s custodial services. The research attack was done in good faith and after it was complete he disclosed the bugs to the offending services before publishing his findings. Reckless Satoshi used the Lightning Network (LN) attack on six different services incl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Axie Infinity Down 40% Since Last Week’s Price High, Protocol Revenue Outshines Competitors

Last week, the game token leveraged within the Axie Infinity gaming universe skyrocketed to all-time highs, while other crypto markets remained extremely lackluster. During the last seven days, Axie Infinity’s platform token has dropped significantly in value shedding more than 12%. Meanwhile, the game platform’s smooth love potion token has slid over 8% over the last 24 hours. Axie Infinity Down More Than 40% Since All-Time High Not too long ago, the axie infinity (AXS) token was a topical conversation because it reached an all-time high on July 15. At the time, AXS managed to capture $28.93 per unit and since then it has shed 12.8% during the last seven days. The axie infinity (AXS) token is used within the blockchain-based game that involves battles between token-based creatures called “Axies.” AXS is used for the game’s governance system as well as other actions within the game. At the time of writing axie infinity (AXS) is exchanging hands for $16.70 per coin. AXS/USD on Ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Play-to-Earn Game From Polker (PKR) Exchange Listing – Endorsed by Akon

The Play-to-Earn NFT based Polker.Game ‘s native token $PKR has been officially listed on the popular centralized exchange BitMart. Polker.game has been in the spotlight recently as Akon, the American R&B superstar and record producer gave his official endorsement of polker stating that the “game is revolutionary” and that Polker is “hands down.. the best play to earn, NFT game in the space.”. With the BitMart listing and celebrity endorsement from Akon, Polker is perfectly positioned to become a major player in the Play-to-Earn league. Watch Akon’s Video Here What is Play-to-Earn? Although not a new concept, play-to-earn has become a trending term due to the popularity of the NFT game AXIE infinity. In the past, previous play-to-earn games have also achieved success – however, thanks to the huge amount of development in the blockchain space in recent years the gaming experience is now massively improved. Play-to-Earn games are essentially free to play and open to anyone and...
Post a Comment
Read more

China to Crack Down on Copyright Infringement Through NFTs

Authorities in China are going after creators of digital collectibles based on other people’s works of art, the use of which was not authorized. The government offensive is part of a campaign to combat online copyright infringement and piracy with the participation of several departments. Regulators in China Move to Strengthen Copyright Supervision of Online Platforms The National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) has recently launched a campaign against copyright infringement and piracy on the internet, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, and the State Internet Information Office of the People’s Republic. A major objective of the initiative is to improve copyright supervision of online businesses by investigating cases involving the sale and distribution of infringing products on short video, live broadcast and e-commerce platforms, and promptly dealing with infringing content, the agency announced in a press r...
Post a Comment
Read more
Blogarama - Blog Directory