Connect with us

News

Elon Musk’s legal team asks judge to dismiss $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit

(Credit: TMZ/YouTube)

Published

on

Elon Musk’s legal team is seeking the dismissal of a $258 billion racketeering lawsuit accusing the Tesla CEO of running a scheme to support the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin. The request was filed by Musk’s legal team in a Manhattan federal court. 

Musk’s Dogecoin lawsuit was filed last June, with the plaintiffs seeking $258 billion in damages. This amount is about three times the estimated decline of Dogecoin’s market value in the 13 months since the suit was filed. But while the lawsuit itself is quite ambitious, Musk’s lawyers noted in their filing that the legal action has no footing. 

Musk’s lawyers dubbed the lawsuit by Dogecoin investors a “fanciful work of fiction” over the CEO’s “innocuous and often silly tweets” about the meme cryptocurrency. They also argued that the plaintiffs never really explained how Musk supposedly intended to defraud anyone or conceal risks about Dogecoin. 

With this in mind, Musk’s comments such as “Dogecoin Rulz” and “no highs, no lows, only Doge” are simply too vague to support a claim for fraud, the lawyers noted. 

Advertisement

“There is nothing unlawful about tweeting words of support for, or funny pictures about, a legitimate cryptocurrency that continues to hold a market cap of nearly $10 billion. This court should put a stop to plaintiffs’ fantasy and dismiss the complaint,” Musk’s legal team wrote. The team also rejected the idea of Dogecoin qualifying as a security. 

The Dogecoin investors claimed that Musk intentionally drove up the meme cryptocurrency’s price by over 36,000% over two years before letting it crash, as noted in a Reuters report. The plaintiffs noted that this move ended up generating billions in profit at the expense of other Dogecoin investors. The lawsuit also cited Musk’s comment about Dogecoin during his appearance at Saturday Night Live (SNL), where he dubbed the cryptocurrency a “hustle.” 

Overall, pinning Musk with the $258 billion Dogecoin lawsuit might be easier said than done. Despite his open support for the meme cryptocurrency, after all, Musk has always advised everyone to be careful with digital currencies. This was highlighted during an impromptu interview in May 2021

“First of all, I think people should not invest their life savings in cryptocurrency. To be clear, I think that’s unwise. But if you want to sort of speculate and maybe have some fun, there is a good chance that crypto is the future currency of Earth. And then, it’s like, which one is it going to be? Maybe it’ll be multiple. But it should be considered speculation at this point. So don’t go too far on the crypto speculation part,” Musk said. 

Advertisement

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

Advertisement
Comments

Investor's Corner

SpaceX gets initial stock coverage from Tesla’s biggest bull

Published

on

SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12
SpaceX Starship V3 flight 12 (Credit: SpaceX)

Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).

Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.

“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”

Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12

Advertisement

Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.

It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”

Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.

There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:

Advertisement

“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”

SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla expands massive safety feature worldwide in latest update

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla has expanded the footprint of a massive safety feature worldwide with a recent Software Update labeled as 2026.20.6. The expansion of the “Blind Spot Warning While Parked” feature represents the more widespread availability of the feature, which aims to prevent “dooring.”

Dooring is when a driver or passenger opens a car door into the path of an oncoming road user, usually a cyclist or motorcyclist. It is among the most common types of cycling accidents, the League of American Bicyclists says.

For this reason, Tesla created a feature that warns occupants not to open the door because an object is approaching. The feature will sound a chime, and it will also delay the opening of the door to prevent an incident.

The release notes state (via Not a Tesla App):

Advertisement

“If you attempt to open a door while an approaching object is detected in your blind spot (for example, a bicyclist approaching from behind) a chime sounds, and your door will not open upon initial button press. Wait a short time and press the button a second time to override the warning.”

Tesla initially rolled out this feature back in 2024 with the Model 3 “Highland.” However, it remained with the Model 3 exclusively for over a year; that was until Tesla added it to the Cybertruck this past Spring.

Now, it is making its way to the new Model Y, 2021 and newer Model S, and 2021 or newer Model X.

The prevention of dooring incidents could eliminate many injuries to cyclists, especially in an urban setting. Dooring accounts for 10-20 percent of bike-related crashes in major cities, and over 17,000 dooring-related incidents were treated in the U.S. over the course of a decade. These usually involve fractures, contusions, and head trauma.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

News

Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla confirmed this morning that it has sent the first production units, manufactured with no steering wheel or pedals, to on-road testing in Austin, sharing video of the first rides with no human controls.

The lack of steering wheels and pedals in the Cybercab aligns with Tesla’s self-certification of Robotaxi as Level 4 SAE, a platform it plans to make widespread through internal vehicles and customer-owned cars that will operate and generate revenue for individuals.

The start of these engineering tests is a major signal for Tesla, which plans to bring driverless, wheel-less, and pedal-less Cybercabs to market in the coming months. With production already well underway at Gigafactory Texas, where the Cybercab is built, there is some inclination to believe the first public rides could happen sooner rather than later.

Tesla’s engineering tests will put the Cybercab in real-world scenarios, testing not only the hardware, but more importantly, the software that drives the car around Austin with nobody supervising it within the car.

This is perhaps the biggest part of the internal testing process, especially prior to allowing regular, everyday people to hail the Cybercab for an autonomous ride. These early rides serve as a true benchmark for Tesla: How many rides can it achieve safely? How many miles did it travel consecutively without needing an intervention? What scenarios challenge the Full Self-Driving suite the most?

The proper precautions have already been put into place as well, as Tesla released the First Responders Guide to Cybercab over the weekend, ensuring that emergency services have 24/7 access to Robotaxi Assistance, as well as other boundaries, such as Geofencing features that can be used to redirect autonomous vehicle traffic due to accidents, road closures, construction, or maintenance.

Advertisement

Cybercab seems genuinely close to being added to the Robotaxi fleet in Austin, but Tesla has prioritized safety throughout this entire process. Therefore, we think it could be months before it truly starts giving rides to the public. People have been frustrated with this, but Robotaxi in Austin has a tremendous safety record so far, so the slow rollout has kept people safe and accidents to a minimum.

The most important thing is that Tesla continues to show consistent progress in the Cybercab’s ramp-up toward fleet addition. A few weeks back, we saw the EPA reward the Cybercab a Certificate of Conformity, allowing it to enter the stream of commerce. Then, we saw Tesla add decals, signaling that it was likely about to start testing it publicly. That has now happened.

The next big move will be the announcement of the first rides, so this Summer should be filled with anticipation.

Advertisement
Continue Reading