A groundbreaking development has emerged in the crypto industry as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dismissed its lawsuit against the Solana-based decentralized wireless network project, HELIUM. The lawsuit, which accused Helium of violating securities laws, was dropped following a settlement agreement with Nova Labs, the developer behind the project.
In an official announcement on social media platform X, the Helium team confirmed the dismissal, stating that the SEC had agreed to drop its claims “with prejudice.” This means the regulatory body cannot re-file the same charges against the project. As part of the settlement, Nova Labs agreed to pay $200,000 without admitting any wrongdoing.
The dismissal has catalyzed a rally in the value of HNT, Helium‘s native token. The token surged from a low of $2.62 on April 10 to a peak of $3.03 the following day. At press time, HNT is trading at $2.96, marking a 9.9% increase in the last 24 hours.
The SEC had initially filed the lawsuit in January, alleging that Nova Labs distributed unregistered securities through its Helium Hotspots and token distributions. However, the dismissal reinforces that the sale of hardware and distribution of tokens for network growth do not inherently qualify as securities under SEC regulations.
In a recent blog post, Helium hailed the outcome as a “landmark victory” for the digital assets industry and DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks) technology. The team emphasized that the decision removes legal uncertainty for projects that leverage crypto incentives to build real-world infrastructure.
This marks another victory for the crypto sector in its ongoing battle against regulatory scrutiny, following similar dismissed cases against other prominent players in the industry.