A United States court dismissed a $258 billion class action lawsuit claiming that Elon Musk and his companies, SpaceX and Tesla, orchestrated a “crypto pyramid scheme.” Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a lawsuit seeking $258 billion in damages against Elon Musk. The lawsuit accused Musk of using his influence to inflate the price of Dogecoin by over 36,000% before allowing it to crash, allegedly causing investor losses and constituting a "Dogecoin Pyramid Scheme." The plaintiffs cited Musk's 2021 appearance on "Saturday Night Live," where he referred to Dogecoin as "a hustle," after which its price dropped sharply.
In his decision, Judge Hellerstein ruled that Musk's statements were "aspirational and puffery, not factual," and no reasonable investor could rely on them for investment decisions. He found insufficient evidence to support allegations of a pump-and-dump scheme, market manipulation, or insider trading. Musk's legal team had argued that his social media support for Dogecoin did not constitute fraud. Following the dismissal, Dogecoin's price remained largely unaffected.
Musk has since distanced himself from the cryptocurrency sector; Tesla, which briefly accepted Bitcoin as payment, reversed the decision but has reportedly retained its Bitcoin holdings. Source: https://crypto.news/court-drops-258b-dogecoin-manipulation-case-against-elon-musk/ Show Less
