coinspress.com
A $258 billion lawsuit filed by investors against Elon Musk alleging that he operated a pyramid scheme to promote the cryptocurrency Dogecoin has been met with a request from Musk and his lawyers to dismiss the case.
The lawsuit, filed by Dogecoin investors in June 2022, is a “fanciful work of fiction,” Musk’s lawyers stated in Manhattan’s federal court on March 31.
They explained that Musk’s support for Dogecoin on social media, including comments such as “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge,” was “too vague” to warrant a fraud claim.
Musk’s lawyers referred to his Dogecoin statements as “innocuous and often silly tweets” to convince the judge to “throw out” the multibillion-dollar lawsuit. In the initial filing last year, Musk was accused of driving up Dogecoin’s price “more than 36,000% over two years and then letting it crash,” with investors alleging that he “used his pedestal as World’s richest man to operate and manipulate the Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme.”
The investors cited Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live in May 2021, where he portrayed “a fictitious financial expert” and called Dogecoin “a hustle,” as a reference point in the lawsuit. The price of DOGE dumped more than 25%, falling as low as $0.50 from $0.66 highs at the show’s start, minutes after the television appearance.
What is Dogecoin?
— Elon Musk, the Dogefather @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/3ZtD5gv221
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) March 15, 2023
Musk appeared to make numerous efforts to reignite people’s enthusiasm for Dogecoin following his television appearance. He told his Twitter followers just days after that he is working with “Doge devs to improve system efficiency” 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 crypto holdings, including Bitcoin, Ether, and DOGE.
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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.”
However, Musk’s lawyers believe that the lawsuit is baseless, and the tweets that Musk made in support of Dogecoin were entirely lawful. It remains to be seen how the lawsuit will progress and whether Musk’s request for its dismissal will be granted.