- A US judge dismissed the LIBRA and M3M3 memecoin case with prejudice.
- The court ruled Meteora has no formal structure, members, or leaders to be sued.
- RICO claims against Kelsier failed to show that an ongoing criminal pattern was needed.
A federal judge in New York has shut the door entirely on a lawsuit tied to two of crypto’s most notorious memecoin blowups, dismissing the case with prejudice and refusing to let the plaintiffs even try again with a revised complaint.
The case, Hurlock v. Kelsier Ventures, revolved around two launches that became infamous:
- M3M3, launched in December 2024
- LIBRA, launched in February 2025 and linked to a post from Argentine President Javier Milei
Plaintiffs Omar Hurlock, Anuj Mehta, and others alleged that insiders tied to Kelsier Ventures, developer Benjamin Chow, and the Solana-based liquidity protocol Meteora worked together to pump prices before dumping their holdings, leaving regular buyers facing crashes of up to 90%. One named plaintiff said he lost around $19,000 on M3M3.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs claimed to represent more than 650 affected buyers, with over 400 LIBRA holders alone said to have lost a combined $17 million, and some market estimates put LIBRA withdrawals above $110 million within hours of launch.
Why The Case Fell Apart Completely
Judge Jennifer Rochon never actually decided whether any of that happened. Instead, she found the plaintiffs had sued the wrong parties using the wrong legal tools.
- Meteora was dropped entirely after the court agreed it has no leadership, no named members, and no structure that makes it a legal entity capable of being sued, rejecting the idea that a protocol becomes a “team” just because people built it
- RICO claims against Kelsier failed because roughly six to seven months of token launches didn’t add up to the “pattern of ongoing criminal activity” racketeering law demands
- Once RICO collapsed, the remaining state law claims against Kelsier were dismissed too, this time for lack of jurisdiction in New York
- Chow also walked free, with the court ruling that writing technical code, knowing a launch was coming, and later stepping back into a support role simply weren’t enough to prove he intended to defraud anyone
What Happens Now
The ruling closes the door on civil claims in this case and frees up roughly $57.6 million in USDC that had been frozen while the lawsuit played out.
It doesn’t mean memecoins are now legally safe territory. What it does mean is that courts aren’t willing to treat a viral token backed by a celebrity shoutout as automatic proof of a criminal conspiracy, and they’re not willing to sue a piece of decentralized software as if it were a company with a CEO and a boardroom. Anyone burned by the next memecoin crash may need to show clear intent, misrepresentation, or coordination, not just that prices surged and then collapsed.
Related: CFTC Wins $31.5M Fundsz Judgment, Bars Two Executives From Trading
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