From Fortune:

The team behind Solana, the world’s fifth-largest blockchain, is creating a new entity called Anza. About half of Solana’s employees will work for Anza now, following a year of regulatory scrutiny and accusations of centralization. Solana’s new legal structure is met with skepticism, claiming it’s an attempt to deflect claims of centralization.

The establishment of Anza is being described as just a coincidence related to increased legal scrutiny. In 2022, Anza began conversations and discussions surrounding the new company, partly in response to ongoing litigation with Coinbase and Binance, as well as an allegation in a lawsuit that SOL was an unregistered security.

The timing of the creation of the new legal entity, Anza Technologies, Inc., a little over two weeks after the SEC argued that SOL was an unregistered security, was labeled as a “just a coincidence” by Solana Labs. There were additional delays as the Solana team wrestled with details over token vesting for employees.

Legal experts say the move may be an effective strategy for dismissing security-based regulations, but still may not hold up under prospective enforcement actions. Halfon pushes back against claims that the new structure is not contributing to decentralization.

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Read more: Drama at Solana: Creation of new corporate entity raises questions of ‘decentralization theater’