XRP Loses Support as SEC Files Case Against Ripple

investopedia.com:

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has unveiled its complaint against Ripple, charging the company with unlawful issuance of securities in the form of sales for XRP (XRPUSD), its cryptocurrency. Ripple had previously warned that the SEC would take such an action. The complaint is the latest among a string of cases that the federal agency has brought against issuers of cryptocurrency tokens in initial coin offerings (ICOs).

The current case could prove to be the agency's biggest catch yet. XRP is the third biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, and its parent company has inked agreements with central banks around the world to implement distributed ledger technology (DLT) to enable faster processing of transactions.

The SEC's complaint is similar in nature to another one filed by XRP investors against Ripple last year. That complaint charged Ripple founders with «an intent to defraud and deceive» investors by holding an unregistered sale of securities. While the SEC's complaint does not explicitly mention fraud, it alleges that Chris Larsen, Ripple's co-founder, and Brad Garlinghouse, the company's CEO, personally profited to the tune of $600 million by selling their XRP stash during upswings in its prices.

«Defendants continue to hold substantial amounts of XRP and – with no registration statement in effect – can continue to monetize their XRP while using the information asymmetry they created in the market for their own gain, creating substantial risk to investors,» the complaint states. Overall, Ripple raised $1.38 billion from investors and traders in cryptocurrency markets without submitting the proper documentation required for such sales, it claims.

The complaint also elucidates on the