The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has taken legal action against Ripple as well as its CEO, Brad Garlinghouse,and co-founder Christian Larsen.
In charges filed today in federal district court in Manhattan, the commission is alleging that the XRP token is classified as a security and is accusing Ripple and the two executives of raising more than $1.3 billion through an “unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering” to investors beginning in 2013. The SEC further alleges that Ripple distributed XRP for “labor and market-making services” and that Garlinghouse and Larsen failed to register their personal XRP sales, estimated at $600 million.