The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped a lawsuit against Helium developer Nova Labs yesterday

This prompted Helium to proclaim, “We can now definitively say that all compatible Helium Hotspots and the distribution of HNT

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dropped a lawsuit against Helium developer Nova Labs and has filed a joint motion with Ripple to pause its appeal against the cryptocurrency firm.

The SEC sued Nova Labs early this year for allegedly offering Helium’s (HOT) cryptocurrency tokens as unregistered securities.

But on Thursday, the SEC moved to dismiss the suit.

This prompted Helium to say in a statement 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.”

The case had seen several interesting developments.

Helium previously lied about various big-name advertisers using its network, according to an Ars Technica report.

Forbes also discovered that Helium’s native token was mostly held by insiders.

Protos also reported how Helium’s founder, during turmoil with FTX and its partner Solana, started a professional racing team.

Meanwhile, Ripple and the SEC filed a joint motion on Thursday that seeks to pause the SEC’s appeal and reach a “negotiated resolution” instead.

The case, which began in 2020, alleged that Ripple’s XRP token was unregistered.

The case almost concluded in 2023 with a ruling that mostly favored Ripple. However, the SEC appealed this decision in 2024.

The likelihood of the XRP case being paused shot up when the SEC’s former Chairman Gary Gensler resigned and the Trump administration displayed its willingness to relax crypto regulation.

This latest appeal request by the SEC follows a pattern of crypto firms being let off or shown restraint by the regulator.

For instance, the SEC dropped its case against crypto exchange Gemini in July.

One crypto case that hasn’t been dropped or paused, however, is the US’s lawsuit against controversial Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon.

Prosecutors claim that the Department of Justice’s memo calling for a reduction in crypto prosecution, which was reported by Bloomberg, won’t affect Kwon’s charges.