PANews reported on May 24 that a federal judge in Texas ruled that cryptocurrency YouTube influencer Ian Balina was allegedly selling unregistered securities when he purchased Sparkster (SPRK) tokens and offered them to U.S. investors as part of an investment pool. Judge David Alan Ezra stated in the ruling that Balina's actions fall under U.S. securities law, and the SPRK tokens meet the definition of securities. The court determined that SPRK meets the Howey test criteria, meaning that investors profit through a common enterprise and rely on the efforts of others. Judge Ezra denied Balina's motion for summary judgment, stating that he "deliberately targeted U.S. investors."

The SEC alleged in the lawsuit that Balina purchased $5 million worth of SPRK tokens between May and July 2018 and promoted them on social media, creating a Telegram group to form an investment pool, but did not disclose to investors that Sparkster gave him a 30% bonus on token purchases. Balina claimed this was a standard discount in a private presale. Sparkster describes itself as a "low-code" blockchain application development platform and conducted its initial coin offering (ICO) of SPRK tokens between April and July 2018. In September 2022, Sparkster reached a settlement with the SEC to destroy the remaining tokens and pay $30 million in ill-gotten gains, $4.6 million in interest, and a $500,000 civil penalty, without admitting or denying the allegations.