Happycoin.club - A group of Dogecoin investors have finally dropped a class action lawsuit against billionaire Elon Musk, which accused him of manipulating the price of the memecoin in 2021.
The plaintiffs alleged that Musk and his electric car company Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) influenced the price of DOGE through social media posts and public statements. The coin has risen in price from $0.10 to $0.70 in 2021.
Investors have accused Musk of using social media posts, an appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and other statements to trade Dogecoin at their expense, Reuters reports.
The plaintiffs demanded that the billionaire compensate them for the loss and pay them $28 billion.
In August 2024, Judge Alvin Hellerstein already rejected the victims' claim, but they filed an appeal.
These statements are claims and advertising, not facts, and are susceptible to falsification. They are not actionable under 10b-5 and no reasonable investor could rely on them, Hellerstein wrote in the Aug. 29 ruling.
After the plaintiffs withdrew their appeal, the insider trading and fraud case against Musk was dismissed. The billionaire's lawyers also dropped their counterclaim against the investors.
Notably, the investors' decision to drop the case came just two days after US President-elect Donald Trump appointed Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to head the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The news sent the price of the DOGE coin soaring.