Nova Labs announces SEC settlement
The firm behind Helium announced that it reached a settlement with the SEC
Tada Images/Shutterstock and Adobe modified by Blockworks
This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.
Nova Labs, the firm behind DePIN Helium, announced that the SEC dropped its suit against the firm just a few months after filing it (in one of Gary Gensler’s final moves).
Nova didn’t get off scot-free; the firm still has to pay $200,000 to settle the SEC’s civil securities fraud charge. Basically, the SEC accused Nova Labs of misleading institutional investors about its partnerships, per the original legal filing. Nova Labs didn’t admit to or deny any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.
On the bright side, Nova doesn’t need to worry about the SEC labeling any one of its three tokens — HNT, IOT and MOBILE — as securities.
“The outcome establishes that selling hardware and distributing tokens for network growth does not automatically make them securities in the eyes of the SEC. It also means that the SEC cannot bring these charges against Helium again,” Nova Labs wrote in a blog post.
Overall, though, the settlement can be read as a win and yet another sign of the times. As the SEC moves forward with new Chair Paul Atkins at the helm, we can expect more changes — though it seems that we’re running out of crypto cases to drop or settle.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- The Breakdown: Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily.
- 0xResearch: Alpha in your inbox. Think like an analyst.
- Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
- Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
- The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
- Lightspeed: All things Solana.
- Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.
