Legal

Musk Beats Suit Over Promoting Dogecoin ‘Pyramid Scheme’

Investors blamed him, Tesla for pushing the token on Twitter
Judge dismisses suit, calling Musk’s statements “aspirational”

A sticker advertising Dogecoin on a cryptocurrency ATM at a laundromat in Hong Kong.Photographer: Paul Yeung/Bloomberg

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By Rachel Graf

August 30, 2024 at 12:14 AM UTC

Updated on

August 30, 2024 at 12:37 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Elon Musk and Tesla Inc. won dismissal of a lawsuit claiming they pumped up the price of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin into a $258 billion “pyramid scheme.”

Investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in the token faulted Musk for promoting it to his millions of followers on Twitter (now X) with statements like “One word: Doge,” causing it to rise. Musk further inflated the price by announcing that Tesla would accept Dogecoin as payment for merchandise, according to the 2022 complaint.