Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk has asked a U.S. judge to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit filed against him by dogecoin investors. They alleged that the billionaire operated a pyramid scheme to promote the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin. “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,” Musk’s lawyer argued.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Twitter, asked a U.S. judge on Friday to dismiss a $258 billion lawsuit alleging that he operated a pyramid scheme to promote the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE).
Musk’s legal team also disputed the DOGE investors’ assertion that dogecoin met the criteria to be classified as a security. While the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has said in a few interviews that all crypto tokens, except bitcoin, are securities, many people have argued that his opinion is not the law.
Nonetheless, Evan Spencer, the lawyer representing the dogecoin investors, stated in an email: “We are more confident than ever that our case will be successful.”
According to the investors, Musk intentionally drove up the value of dogecoin by over 36,000% over two years, only to subsequently let it crash. They claimed that this resulted in billions of dollars in profits for Musk while other dogecoin investors suffered, despite Musk being aware that the meme cryptocurrency lacked any intrinsic value. Additionally, the investors cited Musk’s appearance on Saturday Night Live, where he portrayed a fictional financial expert and referred to dogecoin as “a hustle.”
Despite the lawsuit, the Tesla and Twitter boss confirmed that he will continue to buy and support DOGE. Musk is known in the dogecoin community as the Dogefather. His electric car company, Tesla, the meme crypto for some merchandise, and earlier this year, he reaffirmed that he will eat a McDonald’s Happy Meal on TV if the fast food chain accepts payments in dogecoin.