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Author: Cheyenne Ligon, CoinDesk; Compiled by: Deng Tong, Bitchain Vision
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Pump.fun was again in a class action lawsuit accusing the company of violating securities laws.
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All tokens created using the Pump.fun platform are securities, the lawsuit says.
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The law firm that filed the lawsuit also filed two other class action lawsuits against Pump.fun — one for PNUT’s buyers and another for HAWK’s buyers.
Thursday,Memecoin generator Pump.fun is again in a class action lawsuit accusing the company and its executives of charging nearly $500 million in fees in violation of U.S. securities laws.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), revolves around the biggest open question in the crypto industry — when will the token belong to securities?Although the lawsuit claims that every token created using the Pump.fun platform is securities and is therefore subject to U.S. securities laws, this is far from an established legal issue.Under the new Donald Trump administration, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it was changing its crypto regulatory strategy to form a new crypto task force responsible for establishing a clear regulatory framework for the industry.
The chief plaintiff Diego Aguilar of Thursday’s lawsuit claimed he lost money when trading three memecoins (FWOG, FRED and GRIFFAIN) created by Pump.fun.Although Pump.fun itself does not create any tokens involved in the lawsuit,Litigation documents accused the company of “curating the plan by providing automation tools that allow anyone to create and sell nearly worthless digital tokens in minutes” and therefore qualify as all tokens launched on its platform”joint issuer”.
Aguilar’s lawsuit mentions a UK-registered company called Baton Corporation, which claims it is the operator of Pump.fun, as well as three co-founders of the company – Chief Operating Officer Alon Cohen and CTO DylanKerler and CEO Noah Tweedale.
The law firm that filed the lawsuit, Wolf Popper LLP, New York-based, filed another class action lawsuit against Pump.fun two weeks ago.The lawsuit was filed on January 16, with the Chief Plaintiff different, but the sameBaton Corporation and its three co-founders are accused of selling unregistered securities, the PNUT Token, a Solana-based memecoin inspired by Peanut the Squirrel, the lawsuit claims its market capitalization has reached $1 billion.As of the time of this article, the PNUT token has fallen 89% from its high of $2.25 last November.
Wolf Popper LLP and Burwick Law, a law firm focusing on crypto litigation, also recently filed a class action lawsuit against the promoters of HAWK tokens, a memecoin associated with influencer Hailey Welch (aka Hawk Tuah).
Although Pump.fun was launched only a year ago.Last March, UK financial regulators issued a warning to the platform, causing Pump.fun to ban UK users.The platform has also come under fire for its now disabled live streaming feature, which allows some users to promote their tokens through violence or pornography.
