After a two-year legal battle involving claims of fraud, a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk and Tesla of manipulating meme cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE) is ending.
Investors who brought the case, alleging that Musk was causing the cryptocurrency's price swings through tweets and public stunts, have now withdrawn their appeal, Reuters reported. This follows a court dismissal in August. This decision left both parties without sanctions, or the huge payout investors initially sought.
Investors Withdraw Legal Appeal
The lawsuit, initiated by Dogecoin investors, accused Musk and his electric car company, Tesla, of fraud and insider trading and sought a whopping $258 billion in damages. Investors argued that Musk manipulated dogecoin’s market value through social media posts, including his frequent tweets and his appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live.
They claimed that Musk timed his trades to benefit from his own public statements, causing significant losses for other investors. However, after U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the case on August 29, investors decided to withdraw their appeal.
The judge had reportedly ruled that reasonable investors could not base a securities fraud claim on Musk’s tweets, including his infamous declaration that Dogecoin could become the future currency of Earth. Following this, both sides agreed to drop their respective motions for sanctions against the opposing legal teams.
In an unusual twist, the case ended with neither side securing sanctions. Investors had accused Musk’s legal team of obstructing the appeal process and demanding excessive legal fees.
No Sanctions
Meanwhile, Musk and Tesla sought sanctions against the investors’ lawyer, arguing that the lawsuit was based on ever-changing legal theories meant to extract a quick settlement. Both motions were withdrawn in a stipulation filed in Manhattan federal court, which still requires Judge Hellerstein's approval.
The lawsuit had undergone multiple revisions since it was first filed, with investors amending their complaint four times in two years. Ultimately, the court found that the claims did not hold enough legal weight to move forward, leading to the dismissal.
In June, a group of investors brought a class action accusing the Tesla boss of influencing the price of Dogecoin for his own benefit. Specifically, they accused the billionaire of pumping the price of the meme coin by over 36,000% over two years and letting it crash.
However, the billionaire refuted the claims, vowing to continue supporting the token. In a specific instance, the world’s richest man briefly replaced Twitter’s previous blue bird logo with Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu logo for a few days.
