Elon Musk and his lawyers have reportedly asked a US judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed by investors alleging Musk operated a Ponzi scheme to promote the Dogecoin (DOGE) cryptocurrency.
According to a Reuters story on April 1, Elon Musk’s lawyers declared the lawsuit against Musk—filed by Dogecoin investors in June 2022—a “work of fiction” in Manhattan federal court on March 31.
Musk’s lawyers explained that his support for Dogecoin on social media, including comments like “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no up, no down, just Doge,” was “too vague” to warrant a fraud lawsuit. The lawyers declared: The lawyers declared:
“There is nothing illegal about tweeting supportive words or funny images about a legitimate cryptocurrency that still has a market capitalization of almost $10 billion.”
Musk’s lawyers referred to his statements about Dogecoin as “harmless and often silly tweets” to convince the judge to throw out the multi-million dollar lawsuit.
Musk was accused of driving the price of Dogecoin “over 36,000% in two years and then letting it crash,” claiming in his initial filing last year that he “used his pedestal as the world’s richest man to trade and manipulate the Dogecoin pyramid scheme.”
Investors reportedly cited Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live in May 2021, where he portrayed “a fictitious financial expert” and called Dogecoin a “scam” as a point of reference in the lawsuit.
What is Dogecoin?
— Elon Musk, the Dogefather @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/3ZtD5gv221
—DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) March 15, 2023
Minutes after the TV appearance, DOGE’s price plunged more than 25%, falling as low as $0.50 from highs of $0.66 at the start of the show.
Musk seemed to go to great lengths to rekindle people’s enthusiasm for Dogecoin after his appearance on television.
Days later he told his Twitter followers that he is working with “Doge developers to improve the efficiency of the system,” and that it could be “potentially promising.”
During the market crash in March 2022, Musk told his Twitter followers that he would not sell his cryptocurrency holdings, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and DOGE.
The lawyer representing the investors, Evan Spencer, reportedly stated in an email that “we are more confident than ever that our case will be successful.”
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