As measured by market capitalization, Dogecoin (DOGE), the biggest meme cryptocurrency, rocketed to a five-week high of $0.085 on Sunday after Elon Musk’s attorneys asked a Manhattan court to throw out a $258 billion lawsuit that DOGE investors had brought against the billionaire.
Musk’s attorneys characterized the case as a “fanciful work of fiction” during a court hearing on Friday. They claimed it was intended to smear Musk and blackmail him using his “innocent and frequently stupid tweets” about Dogecoin. The attorneys said that prior claims such “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge” did not hold water on the fraud charge, saying that Musk’s accusers had failed to show how the Tesla CEO meant to mislead anyone.
According to Musk’s attorneys, there is nothing illegal about tweeting encouragement for or amusing images of a real cryptocurrency that still has a market cap of close to $10 billion. The lawyers also disputed the assertion that Dogecoin met the criteria for being a security.
Musk was sued in June of last year after investors claimed he was operating a pyramid scheme to sustain the meme cryptocurrency, driving up its price by more than 36,000% over the course of two years before it crashed. The plaintiffs further contended that the defendant’s “false and misleading assertion that Dogecoin is a genuine investment when it has no value at all” caused them to lose their investments.
Musk’s attorney, Evan Spencer, voiced optimism for a victory in an email to Reuters, saying that “we are more convinced than ever that our case will be successful.” But despite the legal action, Musk has not wavered and has actually increased his support for cryptocurrencies. Musk tweeted “I will keep supporting Dogecoin” after the lawsuit was filed, adding that he was also purchasing it. Musk has been a steadfast advocate for the Dogecoin ecosystem, frequently choosing it over rivals like Bitcoin.
Previously, the billionaire expressed his openness to accept Dogecoin as payment for services other than Tesla and SpaceX products and encouraged people to offer their ideas for improving Dogecoin. On the other side, investors have kept adding to their cryptocurrency holdings. According to data from Santiment, addresses that possess more than 10 million DOGE have added 1.47 billion coins since January 1st, totaling $123.1 million.
At the time of publication, DOGE was trading at $0.079, up more than 8% over the previous 48 hours. Crypto expert “Ali Charts” believes that after breaking over crucial resistance at $0.07800, the price is likely to retest that region, which might lead to a 20% rise towards $0.093.
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