Tesla CEO Elon Musk may be under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over tweets in which he promoted Dogecoin to cryptocurrency investors.

SEC Restricted Musk in 2019

Rumors of the investigation were initially reported on Twitter by First Squawk, an audio-based financial newswire.

SEC IS SAID TO INVESTIGATE TESLA CHIEF EXECUTIVE MUSK FOR HIS TWEETS ON DOGECOIN: SOURCES FAMILIAR WITH THE MATTER #Dogecoins #Tesla

— First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) February 25, 2021

The rumor has not been confirmed. However, there is enough context to speculate on an investigation.

It is already known that the SEC is monitoring Musk’s tweets. In 2018, Musk exaggerated the likelihood of a private Tesla offfering, leading to a settlement with the SEC. As part of the resulting settlement, the SEC began to restrict and pre-approve Musk’s tweets concerning business activity beginning in 2019.

Those facts make it plausible that the SEC, which is extremely interested in regulating cryptocurrency, is monitoring Musk’s tweets when they relate to Dogecoin or other cryptocurrencies.

Musk Continues to Tweet

Despite rumors of an investigation, Musk continues to tweet. His most recent Dogecoin-related tweet was sent at 5:00 AM on Feb. 24.

Literally pic.twitter.com/XBAUqiVsPH

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 24, 2021

Though it may seem unlikely that Musk would tweet about Dogecoin if he were under investigation by the SEC, it is arguably more likely that Musk would disregard the investigation.

In 2018, Musk infamously stated that “[does] not respect the SEC.” He also added that none of his tweets had been censored by the SEC since the regulator settled with Tesla. As such, an SEC investigation is entirely plausible, even if Musk has not gone silent on Dogecoin.

In any case, the rumors seems to have moderately affected Dogecoin prices. DOGE is down 5.7% over the past 24 hours, compared to Bitcoin’s relatively stable change of 0.1% over the same period.

Without any official confirmation from Musk or the SEC, speculation may continue to affect prices.

At the time of writing this author held less than $75 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.