Ahead of Monday’s regime shift alongside President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Nova Labs, the original startup behind Helium—a decentralized network for sharing internet connectivity, fueled by crypto incentives.
In the complaint, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lawyers alleged that Nova Labs (previously Helium Inc.) has sold millions of dollars in unregistered securities since April 2019 via the sale of electronic devices called hotspots, which mine crypto tokens while sharing internet connectivity with nearby devices.
The SEC further pointed to the feature called “Discovery Mapping,” which allowed users to swap their private data for crypto tokens. Nova Labs also made “false and misleading” claims to potential investors that companies such as Lime, Nestlé, and Salesforce were allegedly using its decentralized network.
In 2022, Nova Labs told Decrypt<…>
