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Yes, there is endless case law and legislation around this type of trick. It's usually considered securities fraud. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump

Obviously it's not strictly illegal to purchase stock and then say you did, but it doesn't make sense that you would need that clarified.

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Per your own link, isn't "false or misleading statements" a core component? And if it is, how does this apply to what Tesla did here?

Also, if what Tesla did was illegal then aren't many authors on Bloomberg/SeekingAlpha/ CNBC/etc also just as liable? Seems like what we're discussing is a common occurrence and securities cases are often about people misleading about their own stock/company rather than third party/other tickers (even if they hold shares, or in this case coin).

If your statements about your holdings are true, it's not a pump and dump. To be fraud there needs to be deception: either you need to lie about what you bought or the price you paid, hide the fact that you sold it or the existence of other instruments you hold related to the security, etc...

Financial transparency isn't illegal by itself.

Or making statements that imply you plan to hold to the moon when you have a sell order set at 1.7x current price.

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