Federal Judge Denies Dismissal, Cites “Confidential Informant” Logs
The class-action lawsuit alleging Solana Labs and Pump.fun operated a “coordinated racketeering enterprise” will proceed to discovery. In a ruling issued this week, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon approved the plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint (SAC) in Aguilar v. Baton Corp., rejecting motions to dismiss from the Solana Foundation and Pump.fun’s operators.
The decision opens the door for plaintiffs to introduce nearly 5,000 internal chat logs provided by a “missing” confidential informant. evidence they claim proves network architects knowingly facilitated insider trading.
SOL traded heavily on the news, slipping 3.3% to $123.50 as risk-off sentiment gripped the ecosystem.
The “Smoking Gun” in the Mempool
The lawsuit’s core thesis attacks the technical neutrality of the Solana blockchain. Plaintiffs allege that the defendants did not merely build infrastructure but actively maintained a “fast lane” for insiders to front-run retail investors on Pump.fun’s bonding curves.
While Jito Labs was dismissed from the case in September, the amended complaint continues to cite Jito’s MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) bundling tools as the primary mechanism for the alleged fraud. The suit claims insiders used these tools to prioritize buy orders in the same block as a token’s deployment, guaranteeing entry at the lowest possible valuation before public trading began.
“[The defendants] acted as architects of a digital casino… knowing that the ‘game’ was rigged by the very infrastructure they touted as decentralized.” . Excerpt from the Second Amended Complaint.
Institutional Implications
This ruling is a significant escalation from standard securities litigation. By invoking the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations). a statute originally designed to combat the Mafia. plaintiffs are attempting to pierce the “permissionless software” defense shield typically used by DeFi protocols.
If the court eventually finds that Solana Labs constitutes a “centralized enterprise” liable for third-party dApp usage, it could force a fundamental re-architecture of validator incentive models across the L1 sector. The next procedural deadline is set for February 2026, where the defense must respond to the specific evidence regarding the chat logs.
