Judge: Caitlyn Jenner’s $JENNER Memecoin Not a Security

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. found that the Ethereum-based $JENNER token did not meet the federal test for an investment contract, resolving the securities claim in a class-action suit.

The second amended complaint, filed in May 2025 by lead plaintiff Lee Greenfield, a U.K. citizen, said he lost more than $40,000 after buying $JENNER. The lawsuit, first filed in late 2024, named Caitlyn Jenner and her manager Sophia Hutchins as defendants; Hutchins died in July 2025. Greenfield said he purchased the token first on the Solana blockchain in May 2024 and then on Ethereum days later.

The complaint alleged Jenner used her celebrity status to promote the token, citing social posts and an alleged AI-generated image of Jenner wearing a “JENNER ETH” T-shirt and carrying an American flag with a sign reading “LETS MAKE EVERYONE RICH!” The complaint argued those promotions created an expectation that Jenner’s efforts would raise the coin’s value.

Defendants contended the token was not a security and that Hutchins did not qualify as a statutory seller under securities law.

Judge Blumenfeld applied the Howey Test, the Supreme Court standard that defines an investment contract as an investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits derived from the efforts of others. The order accepted that Greenfield invested money to buy $JENNER but found the complaint did not plausibly allege a common enterprise.

The judge wrote, “Taken together, the allegations in the SAC do not plausibly allege that the investors agreed to split profits and losses or that they pooled their resources to create capital for investment in anything other than the coin itself, including through the alleged transaction tax, buybacks, or marketing efforts.” He added, “Because Greenfield does not plausibly allege either horizontal or vertical commonality, he has not alleged the existence of a common enterprise.” The court therefore did not decide whether investors expected profits solely from Jenner’s efforts.

The ruling disposes of the federal securities claim; the order noted remaining state-law claims may proceed in state court. The case is part of broader litigation over when tokens and cryptocurrencies meet the legal definition of securities and how celebrity promotion figures into those disputes.