- Judge dismisses $258 billion lawsuit against Tesla and Elon Musk over Dogecoin endorsements
- Court rules Musk's statements about Dogecoin were "aspirational and puffery," not factual claims
A federal judge dismissed a class action lawsuit on Thursday that accused Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, of manipulating the market by publicly endorsing Dogecoin. Investors who claimed to have lost money because of Musk's social media posts sought $86 billion in damages, requesting to triple that amount to $258 billion.
The lawsuit focused on Musk's public comments about the cryptocurrency, Dogecoin, mainly through posts on X (formerly Twitter) between 2021 and 2023. The plaintiffs argued that these comments misled investors and caused significant financial losses.
“These statements are aspirational and puffery, not factual and susceptible to being falsified,” wrote U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in a two-page ruling. “They cannot be the basis of [a] lawsuit, and no reasonable investor could rely upon them.”
The lawsuit, originally filed in June 2022 and amended four times, was updated last year to include an insider trading accusation. The plaintiffs' attorneys also accused Tesla’s legal team of harassment, which they described as “unfounded and audacious.” In his Thursday ruling, the judge stated that the remaining arguments from the unhappy investors were unclear.
Musk asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed on March 31, with his lawyers calling the claims and the $258 billion damages request a "fanciful work of fiction" in a New York federal court.
After news of the dismissal on Aug. 29, Dogecoin's price remained unchanged, rising just 0.1% in the past 24 hours. As of this publication, Dogecoin is trading at $0.10, having dropped 20% over the past month, according to CoinGecko data.
Edited by Harshajit Sarmah
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Harshajit Sarmah
