SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Helium Network Developer Nova Labs, Marking a Significant Legal Precedent

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dismissed the case against Nova Labs, the creator of Helium. The company faced accusations for issuing unregistered securities.

The lawsuit was filed in early 2025 and was part of a series of actions initiated by the SEC against cryptocurrency projects under the leadership of former chair Gary Gensler, who resigned on January 20.

The case was closed due to a finding of «bias,» making it impossible to reopen the proceedings.

“We can now confidently state that Helium Hotspots and the distribution of tokens such as HNT, IOT, and MOBILE through the Helium Network do not qualify as securities,” the company remarked.

According to the project’s representatives, this ruling sets an important precedent: distributing tokens for network development and selling hardware does not imply that they fall under SEC regulations.

The lawsuit was dismissed on the same day that Paul Atkins was confirmed as the chair of the Commission.

It’s worth noting that since the beginning of the year, the regulator has dropped investigations against Coinbase, Robinhood, Ripple, Kraken, ConsenSys, Cumberland, and Uniswap.