TLDR
- California judge dismissed class action lawsuit against Caitlyn Jenner’s meme coin for lack of US jurisdiction
- Lead plaintiff Lee Greenfield, a British investor, lost over $40,000 on Jenner’s crypto tokens
- Jenner launched tokens on Solana then created identical coins on Ethereum two days later
- Judge granted plaintiffs until May 23 to file an amended complaint with better evidence
- Jenner’s token has crashed from a peak market value of $7.5 million to around $58,775
A California federal judge has thrown out a class action lawsuit against Caitlyn Jenner and her business partner Sophia Hutchins over a cryptocurrency meme coin bearing Jenner’s name. The judge ruled that the British investor who filed the case cannot use American courts to recover his losses.
U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. dismissed the lawsuit on May 9, stating that it “alleges no facts regarding where or how Jenner provided this liquidity.” The judge explained that without showing how the token purchases were done in the U.S., the court could not “reasonably infer” that Jenner “incurred irrevocable liability” under U.S. securities laws.
Lead plaintiff Lee Greenfield claims to have lost over $40,000 by selling Jenner’s meme coin at a loss after holding it between May and July 2024. Judge Blumenfeld identified him as “the investor with the largest losses” in the case.
The lawsuit presented nine legal arguments against Jenner and Hutchins. Seven of these targeted Jenner directly, including federal securities violations, California state securities laws, fraud, and contract disputes. Two claims were made against Hutchins for controlling-person liability and aiding fraud.
The Token Timeline
Greenfield alleged that Jenner and Hutchins misled investors by launching $JENNER on the Solana blockchain platform, then creating identical coins on Ethereum two days later. This move allegedly caused the first token to lose value.
Between creating the Solana and Ethereum tokens, Greenfield claims Jenner promoted another token named after her and Hutchins’s dogs ($BBARK). This happened despite Jenner allegedly assuring followers she was “fully focused” on the tokens in her name.
The lawsuit also alleged that Jenner profited from these moves by collecting a 3% fee on all transactions from the meme coin’s Ethereum version.
Judge Blumenfeld noted that Greenfield’s complaint “provides scant details about Greenfield’s purchases,” adding that Greenfield only alleged he “accumulated” the tokens, paying with crypto from the Ethereum and Solana blockchains.
Legal Battle Continues
While dismissing the current lawsuit, the judge gave Greenfield until May 23 to file a new complaint with better evidence that his purchases qualify for U.S. legal protection. Jenner and Hutchins were given until June 6 to respond to any amended filing.
Jack Fitzgerald, a lawyer for the class group, told Cointelegraph they were “pleased the Court recognized we may be able to state some claims against the defendants, and intend to amend and press forward with the case.”
The JENNER token first launched in May 2024 via Pump.fun on the Solana blockchain. It soon became controversial after Jenner and other celebrities claimed collaborator Sahil Arora scammed them.
Jenner then relaunched the token on Ethereum. The class group claimed this move tanked the value of the original Solana token but gave Jenner the benefit of collecting a 3% fee on every transaction.
According to CoinGecko, JENNER has lost almost all its value since launch. Its market value has crashed to around $58,775 from a June 3, 2024 peak of nearly $7.5 million. The token has seen just $61.10 worth of trading volume over the last day.
The court didn’t decide whether the JENNER token was a security. Judge Blumenfeld wrote that this “determination is fact-dependent and may be affected by an amended pleading,” so the court “declines to resolve that issue at this stage.”
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