Court Rules in Favor of Reality TV Star, Dismisses Claim That Digital Asset Constitutes Investment Contract
In a significant legal victory, Caitlyn Jenner, a renowned American media personality and former Olympic athlete, has been cleared of wrongdoing in a class-action lawsuit related to her eponymous memecoin, JENNER. The ruling, handed down by California federal judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. on Thursday, found that the JENNER token did not constitute a security under US law, as it lacked the requisite characteristics of an investment contract.
Judge Blumenfeld's order emphasized that the JENNER token, which was billed as a lighthearted, entertainment-focused cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain, did not pool investor funds or utilize them to develop any associated products or technologies. Instead, the token's value was purportedly driven by Jenner's celebrity status and her commitment to promoting it, thereby increasing demand. However, the judge held that mere promotional efforts, without a shared enterprise or structural links between investors, were insufficient to establish a common enterprise.
The lawsuit, initially filed in November 2024 by a group of disgruntled JENNER buyers, alleged that they had suffered substantial financial losses, totaling thousands of dollars, as the token's value plummeted. The plaintiffs, led by UK citizen Lee Greenfield, who claimed to have lost over $40,000, argued that the JENNER token constituted an unregistered securities offering. Despite filing an amended complaint in May 2025, which highlighted Jenner's promise to implement a 3% transaction fee to fund token buybacks, marketing, and donations to Donald Trump's presidential campaign, among other initiatives, the judge remained unconvinced.
Judge Blumenfeld noted that the amended complaint's focus on planned donations to Trump's campaign failed to provide a clear explanation of how these donations would generate a financial return for investors. Furthermore, the judge observed that the proposed plan to distribute fractionalized ownership interests in Jenner's Olympic gold medal, announced in August 2024, was unrelated to Greenfield's claims, as it was introduced after his purchases and never implemented.
In his ruling, Judge Blumenfeld denied the plaintiffs an opportunity to further amend their lawsuit and suggested that claims related to contracts and common law fraud under California law would be better suited for state court. The JENNER token, which was initially launched on the Solana blockchain in May 2024 via the Pump.fun platform, had been marred by controversy, including allegations of scamming by Sahil Arora, a purported collaborator. After relaunching on Ethereum, the token's value rapidly declined, ultimately losing nearly all of its value after reaching a peak of approximately $7.5 million in June 2024.