Legal advisors have warned that Tesla CEO Elon Musk could come under scrutiny by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission for his social media activities surrounding Bitcoin.

On Monday, February 8, Tesla announced in a statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had acquired $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and would soon begin accepting payments from the BTC. Shortly thereafter, asset prices reached a new record high of just over $48,000.

Doug Davison, a partner at Linklaters and former head of enforcement at the SEC, told the British newspaper Telegraph :

“It’s not surprising that the SEC is asking questions about the facts and circumstances here.”

Former European Central Bank vice president Vitor Constancio echoed the sentiment that “the SEC will look into the matter.”

When Tesla made that investment, it was not disclosed. In December, Musk announced that Tesla could buy Bitcoin, and numerous statements of support for Bitcoin followed. Bitcoin continued to grow and Tesla’s investment increased. The Securities and Exchange Commission will announce this on 5/.

– Vitor Constancio (@VMRConstancio) February 8, 2021

The SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have the authority to investigate suspicions of market manipulation.

Musk has repeatedly commented on Bitcoin and DOGE on Twitter, helping to drive Bitcoin’s activity on the social media platform to its highest level. DOGE has reached new heights thanks to Musk’s support.

There is no doubt that Tesla’s public appearance on Bitcoin and Musk’s influential tweets to his 46.5 million followers have contributed to this recent price rise.

Currently, he continues to pay shillings to Dogecoin with this latest tweet from late Feb. 10 stating that he is buying the asset. DOGE is up 13% since that tweet a few hours ago.

I bought some coins for Lil X so he could be a little hilarious.

– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2021

Musk is no stranger to controversy on Twitter: he has already been accused of posting false information about Covid-19 on the platform and shutting down one of his factories.

In another incident, he suggested that Tesla’s stock price was too high, resulting in a subsequent drop in its share price. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk for fraud, accusing Tesla’s CEO of writing “false and misleading tweets,” but he soon reached a settlement with the regulator.

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