US SEC drops lawsuit against Nova Labs: HNT, IOT, and MOBILE rallies more than 50% in the last 7 days

Nova Labs, the founding team behind Helium (HNT), confirms that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped its suit against the firm, which still has to pay $200,000 to settle the SEC’s civil securities fraud charge. This announcement suggests a bullish picture for all compatible Helium hotspots and the distribution of HNT, Helium IOT (IOT), and Helium Mobile (MOBILE) tokens, which have rallied more than 50% in the last seven days.

Nova Labs announces SEC settlement

On Friday, Nova Labs, the founding team behind Helium, announced that the US SEC dropped its suit against the firm just a few months after filing it.

According to the complaint in January, “Nova Labs made unregistered offers and sales of securities when it offered and sold electronic devices called ‘Hotspots’ that mined Nova Labs’ crypto assets and ‘Discovery Mapping,’ a program that allows users to exchange their private data for Nova Labs’ crypto assets.”

“Nova Labs also allegedly made materially false and misleading statements to prospective investors about prominent companies, such as Lime, Nestlé, and Salesforce, purportedly using, being current users of, or relying on Nova Labs’ wireless network when those companies were not in fact using the network.”

With this dismissal, Helium says in a blog post that “we can now definitively say that all compatible Helium Hotspots and the distribution of HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens through the Helium Network are not securities.”

However, the firm still has to pay $200,000 to settle the SEC’s civil securities fraud charge. This announcement indicates a positive outlook for the Helium protocol, with all HNT distribution rallying more than 50% in the last 7 days, according to CoinGecko data. Moreover, this news also signals a shift in crypto regulation under new SEC Chair Paul Atkins following Gary Gensler’s departure.

HNT protocols chart. Source: CoinGecko