A Solana (SOL)-based decentralized wireless network crypto project is skyrocketing after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed its lawsuit against the protocol.
In a new thread on the social media platform X, the development team behind Helium (HNT) says that the regulatory agency has dropped its lawsuit against the crypto platform, which alleged that they violated securities laws.
According to a press release, Helium developer Nova Labs agreed to pay the SEC $200,000 to settle the accusation without admitting to any wrongdoing.
News of the dismissal caused HNT to rally as it went from a low of $2.62 on April 10th to a peak of $3.03 just a day later. It has since retraced and is trading for $2.96, a 9.9% increase during the last 24 hours.
The SEC, which originally filed the lawsuit in January, had accused Nova Labs of distributing unregistered securities.
“The SEC has agreed to dismiss its unregistered securities claims with prejudice. Helium Hotspots and the distribution of HNT, MOBILE, and IOT through the Helium Network are not securities. It also means that the SEC cannot bring these charges against Helium again.”
In a recent blog post, Helium says the dismissal of the case is a “landmark outcome” for the digital assets industry and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) technology, which tokenizes real-world infrastructure.
“This landmark outcome is a pivotal turning point for the Helium community and the entire crypto industry, removing legal uncertainty for DePIN projects that use crypto incentives to build real-world infrastructure.
With the dismissal of the SEC’s unregistered securities claims with prejudice, the outcome establishes that selling hardware and distributing tokens for network growth does not automatically make them securities in the eyes of the SEC.”
This marks another lawsuit dropped by the SEC against crypto giants this year after President Donald Trump took office. Other dissolved cases include ones against the crypto exchanges Kraken and Coinbase, retail trading giant Robinhood, non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, and crypto wallet developer MetaMask.
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