Solana’s Meteora Hit With Lawsuit Over Alleged Meme Coin Rip-off

Solana-based decentralized change Meteora is dealing with a class-action lawsuit over pump-and-dump claims surrounding the M3M3 meme coin launch.

The grievance alleges this led to losses of not less than $69 million between December 2024 and February 2025.

Rug Pull Allegations

Within the April 21 submitting with the U.S. District Court docket for the Southern District of New York, the plaintiffs accused Meteora and its founder, Benjamin Chow, of deceptive traders. It additionally named enterprise agency Kelsier Labs and several other of its executives, together with Chairman Thomas Davis and his sons Hayden and Gideon, in claims of manipulating the value of the Solana-based token to revenue on the expense of the general public.

“Collectively, defendants covertly orchestrated the purportedly public launch of M3M3 on Meteora to restrict preliminary gross sales to defendants and a tightly-controlled group of insiders,” attorneys for the petitioners wrote.

Based on the grievance, insiders behind the M3M3 venture quietly acquired as a lot as 95% of the token provide inside 20 minutes of launch utilizing over 150 wallets. Throughout this era, entry to public consumers was allegedly restricted, which allowed them to inflate the token’s value by way of inner trades artificially.

As soon as the worth spiked, they bought their holdings, resulting in a pointy market crash simply days after the rollout. The accusers argue that the defendants then made calculated efforts to reinflate the token’s value in an try to revive investor belief, however this did not convey long-term stability.

The swimsuit additionally claims the alleged offenders hid their identities and affiliations all through the method, deceptive the general public into believing the coin was launched pretty.

Stake-Based mostly Cash Ought to be Securities

A weblog put up printed in December 2024 launched Meteora’s platform as a direct response to the “pump-and-dump” points affecting meme coin markets. On the time, Chow is alleged to have promoted M3M3 as a safe, stake-backed asset designed to supply long-term worth.

Buyers had been additionally reportedly assured that the launch can be totally clear and accessible to the general public, with staking rewards generated from transaction charges on the Meteora platform.

Nevertheless, the April swimsuit claims that these statements had been deliberately misleading. The submitting additional seeks regulatory readability by calling for stake-based meme cash like M3M3 to be formally categorized as securities. Burwick Legislation notes that such classification may affect how any new superstar or political token is delivered to market on Solana.

In the meantime, Kelsier Ventures, KIP Protocol, and Meteora are additionally dealing with a separate class-action case lodged in March over the collapse of the LIBRA token. Throughout that incident, insiders had been accused of exploiting personal liquidity mechanisms to promote at peak costs, leaving strange merchants uncovered to losses.

Chow has since resigned from his management place in Meteora amid suspicions of insider buying and selling and monetary misconduct linked to the LIBRA fallout.