Elon Musk and Tesla Win DOGE Price Manipulation Lawsuit
A judge has ruled in favor of Elon Musk and Tesla in a DOGE price manipulation lawsuit filed by a group of investors. The judge ruled that Musk's tweets on social media were "innocent" and that no rational investor would base their investment decisions on them.
As reported in June 2023, Tesla boss Elon Musk was sued by a class action lawsuit over Dogecoin, accusing Musk of "insider trading" and "manipulating the price" of DOGE, causing hundreds of billions of dollars in losses to the group of investors.
The lawsuit alleges that in 2021, Elon Musk "promoted" Dogecoin, such as constantly mentioning it on his personal Twitter page, promoting Dogecoin on US television, and other tricks to push up the price of this cryptocurrency, thereby profiting through a series of Dogecoin wallets under his control.
In total, Elon Musk inflated the price of DOGE by 36,000%, only to send the coin plummeting.
The plaintiffs also accused Musk of manipulating the price of DOGE by replacing his Twitter logo with the Dogecoin logo, which caused the price of DOGE to spike 30% at the time.
But on August 29, 2024, Manhattan District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the case, giving Musk and Tesla a victory.
The judge argued that “no rational investor” would rely on Elon Musk’s tweets to make investment decisions.
“These statements are ambitious and exaggerated, without factual basis, and are easily falsified [...] and no rational investor would trust them.”
This was also the consistent argument of Musk’s defense attorney in the lawsuit. Lawyers say that the billionaire's tweets and comments on social media are just "harmless and silly tweets", as harmless as any other social media user.
Therefore, it is clear that it is not investment advice or signals, nor can it manipulate the price of DOGE. Many smart investors in the crypto market have long warned that "trust anyone but Elon Musk!".
In addition, many people think that this is just a group of "angry" investors because of losses when buying DOGE, so they deliberately cause trouble and file unreasonable lawsuits in court. It is not really a notable lawsuit.
