Dogecoin investors drop lawsuit against Elon Musk and Tesla
A lawsuit filed by Dogecoin (DOGE) investors against Elon Musk has come to an end. This Friday (15), investors decided to withdraw their appeal, putting an end to the action.
The case, which accused Musk of fraud and insider trading related to cryptocurrency, was dismissed earlier this year. In August, Musk won another case of this type that also accused him of the same crimes, as reported by CriptoFácil.
The withdrawal also includes a request to lift related sanctions against Musk's lawyers, marking the end of a years-long legal battle. The price of DOGE, in turn, registered a drop of 9.6% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.
Process comes to an end
The Dogecoin lawsuit, originally filed by memecoin investors, alleged that Musk and Tesla engaged in fraudulent activities to manipulate the price of DOGE. These manipulations allegedly caused financial losses to the complainants when the price of memecoin fell.
Investors alleged that Musk's tweets, public appearances and statements — including on NBC's “Saturday Night Live” — served this purpose. In this sense, Musk's speeches about DOGE had the sole objective of manipulating the market and causing strong fluctuations.
In fact, the price of DOGE registered huge increases in 2021, when Musk began to take an interest in it. The bullish rally that year caused a strong appreciation of DOGE and other memecoins that fell to the billionaire's liking.
However, the price correction that occurred soon after did not please investors, who complained about the heavy losses suffered. Therefore, they decided to initiate what would be one of the biggest processes in history in terms of values.
Billion dollar amount
Initially, investors sought a large compensation of US$258 billion in damages, almost 80% of the value corresponding to Musk's fortune, estimated at US$309 billion. But as the process progressed, the plaintiffs changed the requested amount four times over two years.
However, on August 29, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the case, stating that reasonable investors could not establish securities fraud based on Musk's public statements.
The judge noted that Musk's comments, such as describing Dogecoin as the “future currency of Earth,” could not reasonably be interpreted as market manipulation or insider trading.
Hellerstein understood that many large investors engaged in DOGE price manipulation. But none of the active portfolios in this process belonged to Musk or Tesla.
With the victory in August, the plaintiffs promised to appeal the judge's decision. But this week, they chose to formally withdraw their appeal and their motion to sanction Musk's legal team for alleged misconduct.
Similarly, Musk and Tesla withdrew their motion to sanction the investors' lawyer for what they called a “frivolous” and ever-changing lawsuit. With this, the two parties reached an amicable solution to end the process without any losses.