Judge partially sides with Ripple Labs in SEC suit, Blockworks reports

A U.S. federal judge has partially sided with Ripple Labs in a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit alleging the blockchain developer issued an unregistered security offering with its XRP token, giving “both sides something to celebrate,” according to Blockworks’ Casey Wagner and Katherine Ross. Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP were found to constitute an unregistered securities offering, but programmatic sales on the secondary market were not, according to the report. The judge concluded that “the SEC need not demonstrate that (Ripple co-founder Chris) Larsen and (CEO Brad) Garlinghouse were aware that Ripple’s transactions and schemes were illegal” so “therefore, a reasonable juror could find that Larsen and Garlinghouse did not know or recklessly disregard Ripple’s Section 5 violations,” the report noted.