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A US District Court Judge has dismissed a lawsuit alleging that Elon Musk and his company, Tesla, manipulated the price of Dogecoin, resulting in substantial financial losses. The decision, rendered on August 29 by Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that no reasonable individual would have based investment decisions on Musk's public statements about Dogecoin.
The lawsuit, filed in June 2022, sought $258 billion in damages from Musk and Tesla. The plaintiffs, a group of {Dogecoin} (DOGE) accused Musk of inflating the cryptocurrency's value by more than 36,000% over two years and then allowing it to decline sharply. The suit also alleged that Musk utilized his high-profile status to manipulate Dogecoin, describing it as a "pyramid scheme."
In response to the claims, Musk's legal team requested dismissal of the lawsuit on March 31, characterizing the allegations and the associated damage claim as "a fanciful work of fiction." The court's ruling aligns with this view, with Judge Hellerstein finding that the representations made in Musk's tweets about Dogecoin—including a claim that he would become Dogecoin's CEO and statements about sending a Dogecoin to the moon with SpaceX—did not constitute actionable misrepresentations.
Following the dismissal, the price of Dogecoin remained relatively stable. As of the latest data, Dogecoin is trading at $0.10, showing a slight increase of 0.1% over the past 24 hours but a 20% decline over the last month, according to CoinGecko.
The case highlights ongoing scrutiny over the impact of public statements by high-profile individuals on cryptocurrency markets and reinforces the legal challenges associated with such claims.
