A court case that has the future of XRP at stake continues after Ripple’s motion to dismiss it was rejected by a court in California. The plaintiffs claim that the blockchain company sold the coin as an unregistered security and demand compensation. Ripple tried to avoid the case with its defense team insisting the lawsuit had been filed too late.
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Ripple’s Attempt to Dismiss XRP Court Case Fails
The consolidated class action lawsuit was filed last year by a group of investors who accused Ripple, its XRP II subsidiary, and Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse of misleading them about the nature of XRP. In early December, the defendants asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss the case. A ruling on their request was expected last month but on Jan. 15 the court took the motion under submission and postponed its decision, as news.Bitcoin.com reported.
Although Ripple has maintained XRP is not a security, its legal representatives tried to obtain the dismissal on grounds that were different from the substance. They claimed the statute of repose had expired as the case was not filed within three years of the coin’s initial offering, and that the lead plaintiff, Bradley Sostack, bought XRP from a third party in January 2018.
Despite dismissing some of the defendants’ claims on the state level, during a hearing on Feb. 25 District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled that the securities claim was not invalidated under federal law, allowing the lawsuit to proceed. “Here, based on plaintiff’s complaint and the judicially noticeable facts proffered, the court cannot conclude that
