- His lawyers call the lawsuit a “fanciful work of fiction”
- Musk drove up Dogecoin's price more than 36,000% in two years, then let it crash
Elon Musk and his attorneys requested a US court dismiss the $258 billion lawsuit, alleging Musk operated a Ponzi scheme to promote Dogecoin, Reuters reported.
“Fanciful” fiction
According to the hectobillionaire’s lawyers, the lawsuit against their client is a “fanciful work of fiction.” It was filed by Dogecoin investors in Manhattan’s federal court last year. They clarified that the support he demonstrated for the cryptocurrency on social media was “too vague” to qualify as fraud, noting:
They also described his statements involving Dogecoin as “harmless and often foolish tweets” in an attempt to convince the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
Musk’s tweets have prompted several lawsuits. In February this year, he was found not liable for tweeting about having arranged financing for Tesla to go private in August 2018.
He drove DOGE price up more than 36,000% in 2 Years
Musk drove up Dogecoin’s price more than 36,000% in two years, then let it crash according to the initial filing. He is accused of using his position as the richest man in the world to run the pyramid scheme.
Was Dogecoin a hustle?
Reportedly, the investors who filed the lawsuit cited his Saturday Night Live (SNL) appearance two years ago, in which he played a fictional financial expert and called the cryptocurrency “a hustle.”
Shortly after the SNL appearance, DOGE lost a quarter of its value, falling from $0.66 when the show started to $0.50.
He tried to make multiple efforts to reignite enthusiasm for Dogecoin after his appearance. When the crypto market crashed, he assured his Twitter followers that he would not sell his crypto, including Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Ethereum.