Elon Musk and his legal team have reportedly requested that a $258 billion lawsuit filed against him by Dogecoin investors be dismissed. The investors accused Musk of promoting Dogecoin as part of a pyramid scheme, causing its price to skyrocket and then crash. The lawsuit was filed in June 2022, citing Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live in May of the same year, where he called Dogecoin “a hustle.” This caused a significant drop in the cryptocurrency’s price within minutes of the show’s airing.
Musk’s lawyers dismissed the allegations, calling the lawsuit a “fanciful work of fiction” during a hearing in Manhattan’s federal court on March 31. They claimed that Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin were too vague to warrant fraud claims, referring to them as “innocuous and often silly.” According to the lawyers, there is nothing illegal about tweeting support for a legitimate cryptocurrency that has a market cap of nearly $10 billion.
The investors accused Musk of manipulating Dogecoin’s price by using his status as the world’s richest man. They alleged that he drove up the price of Dogecoin by more than 36,000% over two years and then let it crash. The investors also cited Musk’s social media activity after the Saturday Night Live appearance, where he made efforts to reignite interest in Dogecoin.
Despite the allegations against him, Musk has remained vocal in his support for Dogecoin. He has previously referred to the cryptocurrency as his favorite and even stated that he owns some himself. However, it remains to be seen whether the lawsuit against Musk will be dismissed or proceed to trial.