On Thursday, billionaire Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX successfully secured the dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of Dogecoin investors. Initially filed in 2022, the investors claimed that Musk engaged in market manipulation of Dogecoin, the world’s eighth -largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

The plaintiffs hoped to win $258 billion in damages, but U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein permanently dismissed the lawsuit, claiming that Musk’s tweets about Dogecoin becoming Earth’s future currency or catapulting to the moon were clearly “aspirational and puffery, not factual and susceptible to being falsified.” On this basis, the judge ruled that the plaintiffs allegations were "not possible to understand" and Musk’s social media statements were shallow grounds to claim securities fraud.

While investors claimed Musk and his companies "profited tens of billions of dollars" from ordinary Dogecoin investors – putting them at an unfair disadvantage – Musk’s lawyers insisted he posted "innocuous and often silly tweets."

Alongside claims of Dogecoin market manipulation, the judge also dismissed claims of insider trading and Musk’s involvement in a so-called “pump-and-dump” scheme. The outcome was celebrated by Musk's legal team, which said: "It's a very good day for Dogecoin."

Dogecoin’s price dropped 2.3% on the heels of the news on Friday, and is currently trading at a rate of $0.99 per coin. The cryptocurrency maintains an overall market cap of $14.8 billion.