Getty Image
Caitlyn Jenner is in some hot water after being sued by a group of investors for alleged securities fraud related to her $JENNER memecoin which ended up losing tens of thousands of dollars. The class-action lawsuit also lists Jenner’s manager Sophia Hutchins as a defendant.
The plaintiffs, Naeem Azad of the UK and Mihai Caluseru of Romania, claim they lost over $56,000 investing in the $JENNER token. Caitlyn Jenner launched $JENNER on the Solana blockchain in May 2024 and then later relaunched it on the Ethereum blockchain.
According to Lawyer Monthly, the class-action lawsuit claims Caitlyn Jenner’s promotion of the $JENNER memecoin constitutes the sale of an unregistered security. The plaintiffs say that because the memecoin was never registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), they never received crucial information needed to evaluate the risks of the investment.
By November 13, 2024, its market capitalization had crashed from nearly $7.5 million to a mere $170,000, and trading volume dropped to an all-time low, with only $1.80 in daily transactions.
The plaintiffs also claim that Jenner failed to disclose key risks associated with the token, including the impact of Arora’s liquidation of his holdings and the 3% transaction tax imposed on Ethereum transactions.
404 Media reports that Azad and Caluseru claim they would not have invested in the $JENNER token if not for “the false and misleading statements and omissions made by Jenner.”
Jenner posted this video in May 2024 professing how great $JENNER memecoin was going to be for investors.
“Yes, this is for real, get involved! it’s going to be very good”
– Caitlyn Jenner from May 2024 https://t.co/duwb3FOW4p pic.twitter.com/UFQcHhXrLx
— Tal Shmuel Harel (@TalHarelTal) November 14, 2024
“Because this type of digital asset is properly classified as a security under federal and California law, before offering $JENNER for sale to the public, Jenner was required to file registration statements with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, and to comply with all federal and state securities laws, which she willfully failed to do,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit also states Caitlyn Jenner “continuously, systematically, directly, and repeatedly touted $JENNER’s ability to increase in value based on her managerial and entrepreneurial efforts, thereby manipulating the market and overall valuation of Jenner’s own cryptocurrency, serving her own financial interests.”
On top of all of that, the lawsuit points out that Jenner later tweeted that because of the involvement of alleged crypto scammer Sahil Arora being involved in the $JENNER memecoin, it was a scam.
“Due to Jenner calling her own project and memecoin a ‘scam,’ $JENNER’s market capitalization rapidly plunged to $5 million as confusion ensued and Jenner issued no concrete explanation,” the complaint reads. “Investor holdings began losing the majority of their value very rapidly.” But Jenner wasn’t done with $JENNER: she minted another memecoin with the same name on the Ethereum blockchain, and investors – including the plaintiffs – followed her there, too.
“Naturally, due to the confusion and now-competing memecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, the price of the Solana-based $JENNER began dropping despite Jenner, for a couple of days, continuing to promote it, as well, since she had accumulated her own Solana based $JENNER and was still hoping this token would increase in price.”