The Dogecoin (DOGE) market was in for some drama. DOGE’s top advocate, Elon Musk, who is also the man behind Tesla, was accused of manipulating the price of the meme coin.
Musk and Tesla were collectively charged $258 billion in damages. More recently, the lawsuit was dismissed by US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
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Legal Battle and Its Impact on Dogecoin’s Price
The Lawsuit Against Musk and Tesla
In June 2022, a group of Dogecoin investors filed a lawsuit against Musk and Tesla. Musk was previously accused of making profitable trades through multiple DOGE wallets, which Tesla was said to control.
Investors claimed that the price of DOGE was inflated through several publicity stunts, Twitter posts, and an appearance on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. They said that the world’s richest man and Tesla frequently timed trades to Musk’s public remarks and actions regarding Dogecoin.
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Judge’s Dismissal of the Claims
Musk was even accused of purposefully driving up the price of Dogecoin by more than 36,000% over two years before letting it crash.
Meanwhile, Judge Hellerstein dismissed the claims and suggested that the defendants made multiple “material misrepresentations” regarding Musk’s comments regarding Dogecoin. The Judge reportedly added,
“These statements are aspirational and puffery, not factual, and susceptible to being falsified […] and no reasonable investor could rely upon them.”
Dogecoin’s Price Fails To React
Despite this win, DOGE failed to register any growth in its price. At press time, the meme coin was trading at $0.1001. Dogecoin witnessed a 1% drop over the past 24 hours.
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The asset did not have a great week either, as it declined by over 6%.