SEC drops unregistered securities claims against Nova Labs, Helium says

Nova Labs, the creator of the Helium Network, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its claims that the firm sold unregistered securities. 

That means that selling "hardware and distributing tokens for network growth" does not automatically make them securities, Helium said on Thursday in a blog post. 

"After the prior leadership at the SEC sued Nova Labs on the literal eve of the incoming administration, 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," the firm said. 

The SEC declined to comment. 

The SEC sued Nova Labs in January, days before former agency Chair Gary Gensler resigned on Jan. 20. The lawsuit involved three Helium-related tokens — the Helium Network Token (HNT), Helium Mobile Token (MOBILE) and and the Helium IoT Network Token (IoT)  — all of which the SEC said were unregistered securities.

The SEC cannot bring these charges against the firm in the future, Helium said. 

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the SEC has ended its legal pursuits of several crypto firms, including Coinbase, OpenSea, Kraken, Consensys and Uniswap, among others. The SEC also now has a new chair, crypto-friendly former regulator Paul Atkins. Atkins was just confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday evening and has said he plans to make creating a regulatory framework for digital assets a "top priority."