Elon Musk Calls Himself 'The Dogefather,' Sends Crypto Skyrocketing, Perhaps Peeving the SEC

On today's installment of Tesla CEO Elon Musk once again trolling the SEC, it seems the SNL host-to-be has once again sent Dogecoin, his apparent cryptocurrency of choice, skyrocketing with a single tweet.

Late last night, Musk took to his social media platform with an important message for his roughly 52 million followers – he is the “Dogefather," a notion that apparently “very wow-ed" investors so much, that the cryptocurrency's value quickly skyrocketed with Musk's digital stamp of approval, according to CNBC. 

With the outlet also citing Shark Tank star, Mark Cuban's recent posts on Dogecoin as another potential reason behind this surge, the business publication noted that the cryptocurrency had shot up by 20 percent throughout the previous day to a value of 32 cents per unit. As of publication, the currency is currently worth roughly 30 cents a share, according to Coindesk. 

Far from the first time Musk has tweeted in favor of the meme-y crypto, the entrepreneur's outspokenness surrounding Dogecoin has been heralded by its founders, who say they appreciate the businessman's support. "I think having an ally like Elon Musk is pretty incredible, honestly," Billy Markus, one of the currency's co-founders, told Newsweek of their famous fan. "I think it would be really cool if he does literally send dogecoin to the moon on one of his rockets," he added, a callback to the Reddit-popularized phrase of sending stocks to the moon, or increasing their value. 

Despite getting the stamp of approval from one of Dogecoin's inventors, not everyone is too happy with Musk's support of the cryptocurrency. First up? Michael Kamerman, the CEO of online trading platform, Skilling. “Headlines, tweets and endorsements are leading the masses to invest in cryptocurrency in an aim to get rich quick, but many are overlooking the volatility of the market, leading to big losses,” Kamerman, told Market Insider of Musk's favorite Twitter pasttime. 

Aside from a skeptical crypto expert, it seems yet another party may be particularly annoyed with Musk's penchant for tweeting about Dogecoin: None other than the tech mogul's mortal enemy – say it with me, folks -- the SEC. Earlier this year, rumors began swirling that the government agency, tasked with regulating the stock market, has launched yet another probe into Musk's social media presence, Market Insider reported. While these claims remain unverified, Musk has spoken candidly about this Wall Street gossip, digitally telling the agency to square up. “I hope they do,” the exec replied to tweet categorizing the notion of “the SEC investigating dog memes sent by a memer about a memecoin” as “peak 2021” behavior. “it would be awesome."

Yet as the publication notes, if such is the case, this is far from the first time Musk, who once joked that the “E” in SEC stands for “Elon” (you can figure out what the “S” and the "C' stand for in this reading of the acronym) has found himself in trouble with the regulatory agency. In 2018, the SEC investigated Musk for tweeting that he had garnered enough capital to take Tesla private, slapping Musk and Tesla itself with two $20 million fees and demanding the entrepreneur step down as Chairman of the company's board for at least three years, allowing him to maintain his position as CEO of the car company, according to CNBC. Despite getting off with a hefty fine – a.k.a. a billionaire's warning – the entrepreneur has continued to seemingly antagonize the agency, tweeting that Tesla stocks were priced “too high” last May.

Despite whispers of an investigation into Musk's Dogecoin tweets, and the vocal disdain of some involved in cryptocurrency,  it's important to note that the Boring Company founder's posts aren't necessarily illegal, at least according to former regulatory SEC attourney, Ashley Ebersole. "You have a very vocal executive who enjoys putting out content on Twitter," the attorney told CNN last February. "If there was evidence of nefarious intent to pump up the price of something, the SEC would look at that. But absent that, people are going to tweet and there is no agency responsible for policing Twitter."

Whatever Musk's intent was with his latest post, there's one thing we know for sure – it seems the tech mogul is looking to make his followers an offer they can't refuse. 

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