The plaintiff’s brought up Musk’s Saturday Night Live appearance in 2021, where he portrayed “a fictitious financial expert” and called Dogecoin “a hustle,” resulting in a steep price decline minutes after.
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Elon Musk and his lawyers reportedly requested a United States judge to dismiss the $258 billion lawsuit filed by investors who alleged that he operated a pyramid scheme to promote the cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE).
According to an April 1 Reuters report, Elon Musk’s lawyers referred to the lawsuit filed by Dogecoin investors, as a “fanciful work of fiction,” in Manhattan’s federal court on March 31.
The group of investors who filed the lawsuit against Musk in June 2022, along with his companies SpaceX and Tesla Inc, accused him of driving up Dogecoin’s price “more than 36,000% over two years and then letting it crash,” originally filing the lawsuit in June 2022.
Musk’s lawyers referred to his Dogecoin statements as “innocuous and often silly tweets,” in an effort to convince the judge to “throw out” the multi-billion dollar lawsuit.
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Musk’s lawyers explained that his Dogecoin-related comments – including “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge” – were “too vague” to warrant a fraud claim. The lawyers noted:
“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.”
The investors cited Musk’s Saturday Night Live (SNL) appearance, in May 2021, where he portrayed “a fictitious financial expert,” and called Dogecoin “a hustle,” as a reference point in the lawsuit.
What is Dogecoin?
— Elon Musk, the Dogefather @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/3ZtD5gv221
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) March 15, 2023
Minutes after his SNL appearance, the price of DOGE dumped more than 25%, falling as low as $.50 from $.66 highs at the start of the show.
Musk appeared to make numerous efforts to reignite people’s enthusiasm for Dogecoin following his television appearance.
He told his Twitter followers just days after that he is working with “Doge devs to improve system efficiency,” and that it could be “potentially promising.”
During the market crash in March 2022, Musk told his Twitter followers that he would not sell his crypto holdings including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), or DOGE.
The lawyer representing the investors, Evan Spencer, reportedly stated in an email that “we are more confident than ever that our case will be successful.”
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