(Reuters) -U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres said Ripple Labs Inc’s institutional sales of its XRP digital token violated federal law because they constituted the unregistered offer and sale of investment contracts, according to a ruling on Thursday.
The SEC had accused the company and its current and former chief executives of conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering by selling XRP, which Ripple’s founders created in 2012.
Torres, who is based in New York, said the company’s $728.9 million of XRP sales to hedge funds and other institutional buyers amounted to unregistered sales of securities. However, Torres said the case must go to trial so a jury can decide other aspects of the SEC’s claims.
(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
