Elon Musk Requests US Judge to End $258 Billion Dogecoin Lawsuit Against Him

Elon Musk has been accused of deliberately driving up Dogecoin's price more than 36,000 percent over two years and then letting it crash.

By Reuters | Updated: 1 April 2023 10:39 IST

Elon Musk Requests US Judge to End $258 Billion Dogecoin Lawsuit Against Him

Photo Credit: Reuters

Investors also pointed to Musk's appearance on SNL where he called Dogecoin 'a hustle'

Highlights

Lawyers for Musk called the lawsuit 'fanciful work of fiction'
They called Musk's comment on Dogecoin 'innocuous and often silly tweets'
Dogecoin is also a defendant, seeking the lawsuit's dismissal

Elon Musk asked a US judge on Friday to throw out a $258 billion (roughly Rs. 21,20,200 crore) racketeering lawsuit accusing him of running a pyramid scheme to support the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.

In an evening filing in Manhattan federal court, lawyers for Musk and his electric car company Tesla called the lawsuit by Dogecoin investors a "fanciful work of fiction" over Musk's "innocuous and often silly tweets" about Dogecoin.

The lawyers said the investors never explained how Musk intended to defraud anyone or what risks he concealed, and that his statements such as "Dogecoin Rulz" and "no highs, no lows, only Doge" were too vague to support a fraud claim.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

"There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion (roughly Rs. 82,200 crore)," Musk's lawyers said. "This court should put a stop to plaintiffs' fantasy and dismiss the complaint."

In a footnote, the lawyers also rejected the investors' claim that Dogecoin qualified as a security.

The investors' lawyer, Evan Spencer, said in an email: "We are more confident than ever that our case will be successful."

Only Verified Twitter Users to Be Allowed to Vote in Polls From This Date

Investors accused Musk, the world's second-richest person according to Forbes, of deliberately driving up Dogecoin's price more than 36,000 percent over two years and then letting it crash.

They said this generated billions of dollars of profit at other Dogecoin investors' expense, even as Musk knew the currency lacked intrinsic value.

Investors also pointed to Musk's appearance on a "Weekend Update" segment of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" where, portraying a fictitious financial expert, he called Dogecoin "a hustle."

Elon Musk Puts $20 Billion Value on Twitter in Internal Memo: Report

The $258 billion (roughly Rs. 21,20,200 crore) damages figure is triple the estimated decline in Dogecoin's market value in the 13 months before the lawsuit was filed.

Dogecoin Foundation, a nonprofit, is also a defendant and seeking the lawsuit's dismissal.

Musk's posts on Twitter, which he owns, have prompted multiple lawsuits.

He won a court victory on February 3 when a San Francisco jury found him not liable for tweeting in August 2018 that he had arranged financing to take Tesla private.

The case is Johnson et al v. Musk et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05037.

Realme might not want the Mini Capsule to be the defining feature of the Realme C55, but will it end up being one of the phone's most talked-about hardware specifications? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.