A class action lawsuit was filed on May 3rd against Ripple Labs Inc.—a fintech startup that controls the third-largest cryptocurrency in the world—and its CEO Brad Garlinghouse, alleging that Ripple sold unregistered, non-exempt securities in violation of federal and California state securities laws.

In their complaint, Plaintiffs characterized the sale of XRP (Ripple’s native token) as “a scheme by Defendants to raise hundreds of millions of dollars through the unregistered sale of XRP” and “what is essentially a never-ending initial coin offering (ICO).” In addition to attorney fees, costs of the suit, and punitive damages, the plaintiffs also request a declaration from the court that the sale of XRP is an unregistered securities sale and to enjoin defendants from further violating securities laws.

Last week, former CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler explained in remarks at M.I.T. that he believes the second and third most widely used virtual currencies—Ether and Ripple—may have been issued and traded in violation of securities regulations.  This comes on the heels of a crackdown on cryptocurrency-related securities by the SEC, which is particularly focused on initial coin offerings (ICOs).  For fund managers, we believe the increased regulatory pressure will be felt in some expected, and some not-so-expected, ways.

ICO enforcement is trending: The SEC’s Cyber Unit has ramped up enforcement pressure, issuing dozens of subpoenas and information requests to technology companies and advisers involved in the ICO market.  The requests have sought information about the structure for sales and pre-sales of ICOs.  This uptick in enforcement pressure isn’t surprising, especially given Chairman Clayton’s repeated warnings that participants in the ICO space are not complying with the required securities laws (for example, notably stating that he has yet to see an ICO that “doesn’t have a sufficient number of hallmarks of a security.”)  There are no signs the SEC will slow down its scrutiny of crypto-related assets.  The SEC has already indicated that it will devote significant resources to policing the ICO market. 

In its latest effort to combat scams in the initial coin offering (ICO) space, the SEC announced today that it has obtained a court order cutting off AriseBank’s ICO of “AriseCoin” tokens, appointing a receiver over AriseBank and freezing AriseBank’s and its co-founders’ digital and other assets. The SEC’s complaint

The SEC took two additional steps today in its regulation and oversight of the initial coin offering (“ICO”) and cryptocurrency markets.

In the SEC’s latest action targeting an ICO, the SEC Enforcement Division’s new Cyber Unit intervened in an attempted ICO by Munchee, Inc., an online food review service