Solana has recently become a public chain star due to its high speed and low transaction fees. However, a RICO lawsuit targeting the memecoin platform Pump.fun is entangling the Solana team in a legal whirlwind.
The lawyer for the prosecution accuses Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, and Jito Labs of helping Pump.fun build an "illegal digital casino", focusing on Solana CEO Anatoly Yakovenko.
Nine Summons "Delivery Failed"
The lawsuit, filed jointly by Burwick Law and Wolf Popper, invokes the US Organized Crime Law (RICO), naming CEO Yakovenko, co-founder Raj Gokal, Solana Foundation Chair Lily Liu, and Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder as defendants.
The accusations state that Pump.fun accumulated approximately $722 million in revenue through rapid token minting, listing fees, and exploitative design, involving illegal gambling, fraud, and money laundering. The prosecution lawyers emphasize that the Solana executives not only provided technical support but also extracted profits from transactions through validator fees and MEV tools, going beyond a mere infrastructure role. Therefore, Jito, a MEV capture protocol, is also included in the defendant list.
However, these Solana executives and Jito Foundation executives have avoided receiving summons by being "unfindable". This may lead to delayed hearings or defendants not appearing in court at all.
Is Infrastructure Also Illegal?
If the court determines that Solana and Jito Labs "actively profited", it will break the existing notion that public chains are merely neutral channels.
On the other hand, Pump.fun lacks KYC and AML mechanisms and does not verify user ages, potentially being viewed legally as an "unlicensed remittance service" and a breeding ground for "money laundering".
