Today in crypto, the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its lawsuit against the Helium network. Meanwhile, the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies generated nearly $800 million worth of Bitcoin in Q1 2025, and the US Senate confirmed Paul Atkins as the new SEC Chair. SEC drops suit against Helium for alleged securities violations The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has dismissed a lawsuit against Nova Labs, developer of decentralized wireless network Helium, for allegedly issuing unregistered securities, Helium stated in an April 10 blog post. Filed in January 2025, the lawsuit was among the SEC’s final enforcement actions against a cryptocurrency developer under former Chair Gary Gensler, who stepped down from his post on Jan. 20 after US President Donald Trump took office. The dismissal with prejudice means the blockchain developer cannot be charged with similar violations again for issuing in 2019 its native token Helium (HNT), the company said . “[W]e can now definitively say that all compatible Helium Hotspots and the distribution of HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens through the Helium Network are not securities,” Helium said. “[T]he outcome establishes that selling hardware and distributing tokens for network growth does not automatically make them securities in the eyes of the SEC [and] that the SEC cannot bring these charges against Helium again,” it added. Source: Helium Top Bitcoin miners produced nearly $800 million of BTC in Q1 2025 The largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies produced nearly $800 million worth of Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2025, reflecting continued growth across the sector as Bitcoin prices held near record highs. According to publicly available data compiled by Cointelegraph, the top Bitcoin mining companies produced over 9,700 Bitcoin ( BTC ) in the first quarter. With Bitcoin trading at around $81,600 at the time of writing, the total production was valued at around $800 million. Marathon Digital, the biggest Bitcoin mining company by market capitalization, led the pack with 2,285 Bitcoin (worth roughly $186 million) mined in Q1. CleanSpark followed with 1,950 BTC mined in Q1, valued near $160 million. CleanSpark’s March performance also saw a 13.4% increase month-on-month. On April 3, Marathon announced that it produced 829 BTC in March, up 17.4% from February and 10.5% higher than January. Iren, formerly Iris Energy, produced the third-highest amount for the quarter. The mining firm reported a total of 1,513 BTC, worth almost $124 million. US Senate confirms Paul Atkins to lead Trump’s SEC The US Senate on April 9 confirmed US President Donald Trump’s nominee, Paul Atkins, as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 52-44 vote largely along party lines. Trump named the pro-crypto former Wall Street consultant to lead the agency late last year, who was also an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008. Atkins founded the financial consulting firm Patomak Global Partners after he left the SEC in 2009 and served as co-chair of the crypto advocacy group Token Alliance between 2017 and late 2024. After he’s sworn in, Atkins will follow on from former chair Gary Gensler, whose tenure saw the agency launch multiple lawsuits and investigations against crypto firms over alleged breaches of securities laws. Atkins is expected to take a different approach. He said at a Senate confirmation hearing in March that a top priority of his time at the SEC would be “to provide a firm regulatory foundation for digital assets through a rational, coherent, and principled approach.”
