Tesla's Elon Musk, who was dubbed the godfather of Dogecoin by the community, was sued in a class action lawsuit by Dogecoin investors in September last year, seeking $258 billion in compensation from Musk and other defendants.
The lawsuit accuses Musk of working with Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring Company to deliberately raise the price of Dogecoin, attract retail investors to enter the market, and then dump large quantities of the currency, causing the price to plummet. The Dogecoin Foundation is also among the defendants.
Musk seeks to end $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit
According to a Reuters report earlier today (1), Musk filed legal documents in Manhattan federal court on Friday, asking the judge to dismiss the Dogecoin "extortion" lawsuit seeking $258 billion.
Musk and Tesla's lawyers argued in the filing that the class-action lawsuit by Dogecoin investors is a fantasy fiction about Musk's "innocent tweets" about Dogecoin.
The lawyers noted that investors never explained how Musk intended to defraud anyone or what risks he concealed, and that statements made by the plaintiffs, such as Musk's "Dogecoin Rulz" and "No highs, no lows, only Doge," were too vague to support allegations of fraud.
There is nothing illegal about tweeting supportive comments or funny pictures about a legitimate cryptocurrency with a market value of nearly $10 billion. The court should stop the plaintiff’s fantasy and dismiss the complaint.
The lawyers also refuted investors' claims that Dogecoin qualifies as a security in the filing; and lawyers representing Dogecoin investors confidently stated in an email: "We are more confident than ever that our case will succeed."
Evolved into a class action lawsuit
In June last year, plaintiff Keith Johnson initially filed a civil lawsuit against Musk and his company, accusing the defendants of knowing that DOGE lacked intrinsic value and using Ponzi scheme-like methods to drive up the price of Dogecoin and profit from it, causing investors to suffer huge losses. He claimed $258 billion in "damages" from Musk.
Later in September, the case expanded into a class action lawsuit with the addition of seven plaintiffs and six new defendants. The Dogecoin investors who filed the lawsuit also asked the judge to prohibit Musk and his company from promoting the meme coin in the United States and to prohibit the trading of Dogecoin in the United States.
In February of this year, Musk, who has been frequently involved in lawsuits due to his tweets, was acquitted in a class action trial regarding his 2018 tweet about "taking Tesla private." The jury ruled that Musk and his company were not responsible for the allegations of misleading investors. This precedent may bring favorable rulings to similar lawsuits in the future.
CoinGecko data shows that Dogecoin was trading at $0.078 at press time, up 4.5% in the past 24 hours, but has fallen more than 89% from its all-time high of $0.73 in May 2021.
