A judge in California has declared that the $JENNER memecoin, launched by former Olympic athlete and TV personality Caitlyn Jenner, does not qualify as a security. The decision comes after a class action lawsuit, ongoing since late 2024, in which investor Lee Greenfield alleged losses exceeding $40,000 from his involvement with the token.
Allegations against Caitlyn Jenner
Lee Greenfield, the plaintiff, purchased the $JENNER token in May 2024—first on the Solana blockchain, then on Ethereum. In his complaint, Greenfield argued that Jenner had heavily promoted the token using her celebrity status, leading investors to expect a rise in value. Notably, Jenner’s social media featured AI-generated visuals with “JENNER ETH” shirts and American flags, promising, “Let’s make everyone rich!”
Caitlyn Jenner is widely known in the US for her Olympic history and participation in reality TV. With her token project, she extended her influence into the cryptocurrency market, gaining notable attention beyond mainstream media.
Key legal arguments in the court process
Jenner’s manager, Sophia Hutchins, was also named in the lawsuit. However, Hutchins passed away in July 2025. The defense maintained that the Ethereum-based $JENNER token should not be classified as a security and that Hutchins could not be legally recognized as a vendor.
Judge Stanley Blumenfeld, Jr. referenced the US Supreme Court’s 1946 Howey case, which outlines the legal criteria for defining an investment contract as a security. The Howey test asks whether invested money is pooled in a common enterprise, with profits expected from others’ efforts. While acknowledging Greenfield’s purchase, the judge found that the investment did not constitute a common enterprise with other investors.
Judge Blumenfeld wrote in his decision, “Considering the claims as a whole, it is not reasonable to assert that investors pooled funds to share profits or losses, raise capital, or finance any project beyond the coin itself. Thus, there is no common enterprise on the basis of horizontal commonality.”
Blumenfeld further concluded that there was neither horizontal nor vertical commonality among investors, so the “common enterprise” element of the Howey test was not met. Accordingly, he declined to address whether investors’ profit expectations depended on Jenner’s actions, which is the next step in the Howey analysis.
State-level claims and future of the case
After rejecting the federal securities claim, the judgment clarified that any remaining state-level allegations could be considered by California courts. This means Greenfield may pursue his complaint locally, but not under federal securities law.
In his ruling on this matter, the judge stated, “Given the absence of a common enterprise, further review is unnecessary.”
The outcome of this case adds to the range of interpretations by American courts over whether certain cryptocurrencies can be deemed securities. The California judgment may now serve as a precedent for future lawsuits involving similar meme token projects.
