Judge Approves Expanded Solana RICO Case; 5,000 ‘Insider’ Chats Surface

A federal judge in New York has green-lit a second amended complaint in the class-action lawsuit against Pump.fun, formally dragging Solana Labs, the Solana Foundation, and Jito Labs into a high-stakes RICO battle. The order, signed by Judge Colleen McMahon, follows the emergence of a confidential informant armed with nearly 5,000 internal chat logs. Evidence plaintiffs claim exposes a coordinated "Pump Enterprise" designed to fleece retail traders.

The Receipt: The ‘Pump Enterprise’ Allegations

The core of the expanded complaint rests on 5,000 pages of chat logs that allegedly document real-time coordination between Pump.fun operators and Solana infrastructure heavyweights. Plaintiffs argue these logs prove that the defendants didn’t just build neutral tools but actively conspired to manipulate transaction ordering and validator execution to favor insiders.

The lawsuit now targets the ecosystem’s structural pillars:

• The Defendants: Pump.fun, Solana Labs, Solana Foundation, Jito Labs, and executives including Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal.
• The Mechanism: Allegations that Jito’s MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) tools were tweaked to allow insiders to front-run retail buys on Pump.fun’s bonding curves.
• The Stakes: By invoking the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations), plaintiffs are seeking treble damages, potentially tripling the financial liability if the "crypto crime cartel" narrative holds in court.

"The logs contain contemporaneous discussions about transaction ordering, validator behavior… and coordination across entities named in the suit," noted reports on the filing.

Market Reaction: Capital Flight to ‘BONK.fun’

The market wasted no time pricing in the regulatory contagion. While Solana (SOL) hovered weakly around $123 (-1.7%), traders rotated capital aggressively into competitor platforms. The BONK.fun ecosystem, a direct rival launchpad, saw its market cap nearly double to $241 million in the 24 hours following the news.

Jito (JTO) remained surprisingly resilient, trading near $0.40, though the inclusion of Jito Labs as a RICO defendant strikes directly at the heart of the "neutral infrastructure" defense often used by MEV providers.

Institutional Context

This ruling is a critical pierced veil for the crypto infrastructure stack. Historically, protocol developers (like Solana Labs) and MEV providers (like Jito) have argued they merely build the roads, not drive the getaway cars. The admission of these 5,000 chats into evidence suggests the court is willing to entertain the theory that the "roads" were engineered with secret express lanes for specific drivers. If the "Pump Enterprise" creates a liability precedent, every high-throughput chain and MEV relay could face similar retroactive scrutiny.