Elon Musk Triumphs in Dogecoin Lawsuit

Elon Musk and his electric vehicle company, Tesla, successfully defended against a class action lawsuit in 2022. The lawsuit accused Musk of manipulating the market for Dogecoin, a popular cryptocurrency, which allegedly resulted in financial losses for investors.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning the case has been closed permanently, and the plaintiffs cannot refile it.

The legal action, initiated in June 2022, claimed that Musk's public statements and tweets about Dogecoin were misleading. The investors argued that Musk’s comments, such as his joking declaration of becoming the “CEO” of Dogecoin and his suggestion that SpaceX might send a Dogecoin to the moon, were deceptive and led to significant financial harm.

The group of investors filed their lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. They targeted Musk personally, as well as his companies Tesla and SpaceX, holding them accountable for the alleged market manipulation.

In his ruling, Judge Hellerstein stated that Musk’s remarks were not factual assertions but rather optimistic and exaggerated statements. He emphasized that no reasonable investor should have relied on these comments when making financial decisions.

Furthermore, the judge remarked that the plaintiffs’ claims, which included accusations of a “pump and dump” scheme and insider trading, were vague and lacked sufficient evidence. He concluded that these allegations did not form a solid basis for market manipulation.

As the legal battle concluded, Dogecoin, currently the ninth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, saw a slight decline of 1.2% over the past 24 hours. It was trading at approximately $0.1, with a market cap of $14.6 billion.