A federal judge has delivered a major win for Caitlyn Jenner, ruling that her JENNER memecoin does not qualify as a security, thereby dismissing a class-action lawsuit brought against her.
The ruling, issued by California federal judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. on Thursday, stemmed from accusations by lead plaintiff Lee Greenfield, who claimed to have lost over $40,000 while investing in the token, which launched in May 2024 on both the Solana and Ethereum blockchains.
The crux of the lawsuit revolved around the Howey Test, a legal framework established by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1946, which defines whether a transaction qualifies as an investment contract. According to the judge, the lawsuit failed to demonstrate that the JENNER token met the necessary criteria to be considered a security.
The Howey Test requires that an investment involve money in a common enterprise with the expectation of profits primarily derived from the efforts of others. In this instance, the judge emphasized that two of the three key elements of the Howey Test were not satisfied, particularly highlighting the absence of a “common enterprise” among the token holders.
Greenfield accused Jenner of leveraging her celebrity status to generate interest in the token, citing promotional activities, including an AI-generated image of Jenner wearing a JENNER ETH t-shirt as part of her marketing strategy. However, the court found that such promotional efforts were insufficient to establish a common enterprise.
The class action was originally filed in November 2024 against Jenner and her manager, Sophia Hutchins, who passed away in July 2025. The amended complaint argued that investors pooled resources based on a promise that a 3% transaction fee from sales would fund token buybacks and other ventures, including fractional ownership of Jenner’s Olympic gold medal.
Judge Blumenfeld dismissed the pooling argument as well, asserting that the allegations did not provide sufficient evidence that investors had agreed to share profits or losses collectively. He pointed out that the gold medal concept, announced after many investors had already made their purchases, was never realized.
Despite the ruling in Jenner’s favor, the saga of the JENNER token has been fraught with controversy since its launch. It quickly attracted negative attention when Jenner and other high-profile figures claimed they were deceived by a collaborator named Sahil Arora. Following this issue, Jenner repackaged the token on Ethereum, a move that some investors argue diminished the value of the original Solana version.
At its peak, the JENNER token reached a market valuation of approximately $7.5 million in June 2024 but has since seen a dramatic decline in value.
Moving forward, the judge has denied the plaintiff’s request to file a third amended complaint, and any remaining claims under California law, relating to contract and fraud, have been referred to state court.
