A class action suit has been amended by an investor in XRP of Ripple. In the suit, Bradley Sostack an investor in XRP alleged that Ripple misled investors and raised money from them by selling XRP token, an unregistered security. A clear violation of Federal laws.
The filing was made on the 5th of August, 2019 and in a Coindesk’s report dated August 13th, the initial class action law suit was filed in 2017 and with this amendment, Ripple has until mid of September to make a response to this action.
Citing a SEC’s newly released “Framework for Investment Contract Analysis of Digital Assets, the plaintiff is seeking to defined XRP as an unlawful unregistered assets under the framework.
“The SEC Framework makes clear that ‘[w]hether a particular digital asset at the time of its offer or sale satisfies the Howey test depends on the specific facts and circumstances.’ The specific facts and circumstances relating to XRP support the conclusion that XRP is a security under the Howey test.”
The contention of Ripple as a security or not has been an ongoing debate amongst individuals in the industry. Some see XRP as a centralized digital asset which should not be touched since the founders hold huge percentage of the total while others do not share this opinion.
Since the XRP Token is at current not mandatory to utilize any of Ripple’s products, this has raised concerns on the use cases of the token. Since it cannot be used in any of Ripple’s products, it begs the question of what really is XRP.
Ripple is a US based technology company founded by Chris Larsen in 2012. It is currently led by Brad Garlinghouse. It provides frictionless experience to send money globally using the power of blockchain. According to the company, by joining its growing, global network (RippleNet), financial institutions can process their customers’ payment anywhere in the world instantly, reliably and cost effectively.
Ripple is expected to respond to the class action not later than September.