U.S. SEC drops unregistered securities case against Helium developer Nova Labs 

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has officially dropped its case accusing Nova Labs, the team behind the Helium Network, of selling unregistered securities. 

In an Apr. 11 blog post on its official Medium page, Helium called the outcome “a major win for Helium (HNT) and The People’s Network.” The dismissal resolves long-standing uncertainty about the regulatory status of its three main tokens, HNT, IOT, and MOBILE. The SEC has agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the agency cannot pursue the same charges again in the future. 

Helium credited the agency’s new leadership for bringing clarity to crypto infrastructure projects, which has helped close a chapter that had created uncertainty for the wider Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network sector. According to Helium, this legal outcome provides clarity that selling hardware and distributing tokens to promote network growth does not automatically classify them as securities under U.S. law. 

However, the blog post made no mention of a related $200,000 civil penalty. According to court documents reviewed by Yahoo Finance, Nova Labs agreed to pay the SEC to settle civil securities fraud charges over allegedly misleading investors during a fundraising round in 2021–2022. 

The SEC accused the company of exaggerating partnerships with Nestle, Lime, and Salesforce to attract investment at a $1 billion valuation. Nova Labs did not admit or deny wrongdoing as part of the settlement. The SEC originally filed the lawsuit in January, shortly before former Chair Gary Gensler stepped down.

Since then, under the new Trump administration, the SEC has dropped several high-profile cases against crypto firms including Coinbase, Kraken, and Consensys. In addition, Paul Atkins, a crypto-friendly regulator and advocate, was confirmed as the new SEC chairman on Apr. 10. Atkins is expected to steer the agency towards clearer digital asset rules that promote innovation.