CoinMarketCap News, June 17: 'Stupid as F***' - DOGE Co-Founder Slams Man Suing Musk for Billions

Back in 2018, Bitcoin plunged by over 80% in the space of a year — from $20,000 to $3,600. But according to CMC's head of research, this time is different. In a new note, Alice Liu writes: "For the first time crypto is going into a bear market when the global markets are also expected to go into a negative outlook... When the global economic outlook isn’t bright, it amplifies the fear in crypto." She says the gloomy picture "hurts crypto in two ways" — not only are investors more likely to sell and crystalize losses, but there's less willingness to "buy the dip" at current levels.

Elon Musk — as well as Tesla and SpaceX — are being sued for $258 billion amid allegations they all played an instrumental role in running a "Dogecoin pyramid scheme." The lawsuit has been brought by Keith Johnson, an American investor who was "defrauded out of money" as a result of his actions. Court documents filed in New York claim: "Musk used his pedestal as the world's richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin pyramid scheme for profit, exposure and amusement." DOGE surged by 18,000% in a little over four months last year — hitting highs of 73 cents. But the memecoin's fallen by 92% since then. Dogecoin's co-founder, Billy Markus, says the lawsuit is "stupid as f***."

And in other developments, Musk has declared that it "makes sense" for Twitter to integrate crypto payments. The billionaire was speaking at an all-hands meeting with the social network's staff — despite the fact that his planned takeover has stalled in recent weeks. According to CoinDesk, he said: "Money is fundamentally digital at this point and has been for a while… It would make sense to integrate payments into Twitter so it's easy to send money back and forth." Elsewhere in the virtual meeting, Musk suggested that Twitter may end up shedding staff because of the economic climate, and said: "Costs exceed revenue. That's not a great situation." Crypto Twitter might be breathing a sigh of relief after he clarified that, while he believes that all humans on the social network should be verified, he doesn't plan to compel users to reveal their real names.

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