Elon Musk, the self-acclaimed “Dogefather,” has asked a US Judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed against him in 2022. The lawsuit accuses Musk of manipulating the price of Dogecoin in a Ponzi-like manner leading investors to lose money on their investments.
Musk denies this and has filed for the court to dismiss the complaint. His lawyers, in the filing, noted that the lawsuit is a ‘’fanciful work of fiction’’ over his innocent and often silly tweets about Dogecoin. They further stated that the plaintiff never explained how Musk intended to defraud anyone with his tweets and that statements like ‘’no highs, no lows, only Doge’’ were insufficient to support fraud claims.
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Musk’s lawyers added that nothing was illegal about tweeting words or funny pictures about a legit cryptocurrency with a market cap of nearly $ 50 billion. They also rejected the notion that Dogecoin is a security, as claimed in the lawsuit.
The History Of The $258 Billion Lawsuit
Elon Musk is known for his keen interest in cryptocurrencies, with Dogecoin as one of his favorites. His tweets have historically played a major role in the increase or decrease in the price of Doge, and some crypto enthusiasts have criticized this influence in the past.
The $258 billion lawsuit was filed in June 2022 by a plaintiff named Keith Johnson on behalf of a group of Dogecoin investors in a Manhattan federal court. He accused Musk of hyping the merits of Dogecoin and having caused a pump-and-dump effect on the token.
The lawsuit further alleged that Musk knew since 2019 that Dogecoin had no value and yet promoted it to profit from its trade. It also noted that Musk had used his influence as the richest man in the world to manipulate the Dogecoin pyramid scheme for profit, exposure, and amusement.
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Investors also pointed to Musk’s appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live, where he played a fictional financial expert and called Dogecoin ‘’a hustle’’. The plaintiff sought a $258 billion in compensation which is triple the estimated decline in Dogecoin market value during the period preceding the lawsuit. They also sought an order prohibiting Elon Musk and his companies from promoting Dogecoin.
Elon Musk appears unfazed by the lawsuit and has tweeted regularly about the memecoin. The Tesla CEO is no stranger to lawsuits regarding his tweets, which have courted past controversies.
Dogecoin Price Analysis
Dogecoin’s price so far has followed the performance of the crypto market. The leading meme coin continues to follow the price trend of Bitcoin and has recovered some price gains in recent weeks. At the time of writing, DOGE is sitting at a price of $0.0823, up 7.49%, and seeing 10.4% profit in the last week. Doge is one of the best performers among the top cryptocurrencies over the last week.
Featured Image from Unsplash, Chart from TradingView