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Judge Colleen McMahon tossed every claim against Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, and their executives. Gone. The Pump Fun lawsuit, filed by Burwick Law, hit a wall when it came to those defendants — but the case itself is far from dead.
The racketeering allegations — RICO charges — against Pump Fun’s parent company, Baton Corporation, and its executives survived the court’s review. Plaintiffs Carnahan and Okafor pushed wire fraud, illegal gambling, and unlicensed money transmission claims, and McMahon let those stand. A separate RICO claim from plaintiff Aguilar didn’t make it, though. Dismissed. So the picture is messy: Solana Labs walks, Baton stays in the fire, and one plaintiff’s RICO theory gets cut entirely. That’s three different outcomes from one ruling, which pretty much captures how tangled this case has become since Burwick Law filed it back in January 2025.
Memecoins FRED and GRIFFAIN Aren’t Securities
McMahon also ruled on the token side of things. The two Pump Fun memecoins named in the lawsuit — FRED and GRIFFAIN — don’t qualify as securities under the Howey Test. The court found they didn’t meet the criteria, so no Securities Act violation there. Crypto law expert Ariel Givner was quick to flag that the ruling is narrower than it looks. It doesn’t apply to all memecoins — only those without a common profit enterprise. So anyone reading this as a blanket green light for the memecoin market is probably getting ahead of themselves. Givner’s point matters: the legal status of memecoins is still murky, and it’s going to stay that way case by case.
The Solana Labs dismissal is worth sitting with for a second. The firm was accused of helping to bypass US securities laws and pulling capital out of the market without investor protections or disclosure obligations. Burwick Law argued hard on that front. Jito Labs got the same treatment early on — named in the original filing alongside Solana Labs, accused of conspiring to dodge securities regulations. But Burwick Law voluntarily dropped Jito Labs several months after the case started. The court didn’t have to rule on Jito at all. Now, with Solana Labs dismissed by McMahon’s order, the legal spotlight has basically shifted entirely onto Baton Corporation and one other messy problem: the 25 key opinion leaders Burwick Law can’t seem to find.
Burwick Law’s KOL Problem Is Getting Worse
Twenty-five. That’s how many key opinion leaders — KOLs, in the industry shorthand — Burwick Law named in the lawsuit but hasn’t managed to serve since January 2025. The court wants to know why. McMahon’s order gives the firm until September 10 to explain the failure or watch those claims get dismissed too.
The accusations against the KOLs are serious. They allegedly promoted Pump Fun tokens while hiding their own compensation and concealing existing positions in those same tokens. If true, that’s the kind of thing that can mislead retail investors badly — buying into hype without knowing the person hyping it is already holding and getting paid. It’s a pattern that’s drawn regulatory attention across the crypto space for years, and Burwick Law is trying to make it stick in court.
One of the named individuals goes by “Scooter.” That influencer has already threatened to sue Burwick Law for potential defamation. No details on whether that threat has gone anywhere. Unclear.
The firm’s struggle to serve these 25 individuals is now a real liability for the case. Courts don’t love delays, and Burwick Law has had months. The September 10 deadline isn’t a soft suggestion — it’s a hard cutoff before dismissal becomes the default outcome for that chunk of the lawsuit.
And the stakes on the KOL front aren’t small. If those claims get dismissed for failure to serve, Burwick Law loses what’s arguably the most attention-grabbing part of its original theory: that influencers were paid to pump tokens while hiding their bags. The Baton Corporation RICO claims survive for now, but the influencer angle is what made this lawsuit land differently than a standard securities dispute.
Burwick Law has until September 10.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Why were claims against Solana Labs dismissed in the Pump Fun lawsuit?
Judge Colleen McMahon dismissed all claims against Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, and their executives, rejecting Burwick Law’s allegations that they helped bypass US securities laws and extract capital from the market without investor protections.
Do the FRED and GRIFFAIN rulings mean all memecoins are safe from securities law?
No. Crypto law expert Ariel Givner said the ruling applies only to memecoins without a common profit enterprise — it’s not a blanket exemption for the entire memecoin market.
Why It Matters
The dismissal of claims against Solana Labs and its executives underscores the legal complexities surrounding cryptocurrency projects, particularly as they navigate regulatory scrutiny. This outcome may bolster confidence in Solana's operations and governance, potentially stabilizing investor sentiment in the ecosystem. However, the ongoing RICO charges against Baton Corporation highlight the persistent risks associated with regulatory compliance in the crypto space, which could have broader implications for other projects facing similar scrutiny.
