It is illegal to "pump and dump" a security.

I have a hard time believing the people here defending Musk dont know this, and can't see how his behaviour _migbt_ qualify as a pump and dump.

1. Tell someone you own a security 2. They get excited and buy it 3. You sell it when it goes up

You can't just classify this set of actions as a pump and dump. You have to do something that is considered a scam, such as grossly misrepresenting the security with the intention of making a profit at the cost of uneducated investors. As far as I can tell, Elon never claimed Bitcoin is environmentally friendly, nor did he make other false claims about Bitcoin's functionalities or capabilities.

Except Bitcont isn't a security, so there are no laws against "Pump and Dump" in the unregulated market.

Some would argue that Bitcoin is fundamentally a giant "Pump and Dump" anyway, so nothing to see here.

Sure, but what you're basically saying is "what Musk did isn't illegal because the thing he did it against isn't considered a security"

You may be technically correct, doesn't make it any less sketch or immoral

Pump and dump arguably isn't immoral. It's just using herd mentality, if it wasn't illegal people might actually try to think before they buy and sell.