Lawyers representing payment startup Ripple in its ongoing securities lawsuit are trying to move the case to a U.S. federal court in a show of what one legal commentator described as “tactical brilliance” Nov. 9.
Court records confirm the application to move the case from state to federal level, which would allow Ripple to prove definitively that its XRP token is not a security under U.S. law, should it win.
In the removal filing, litigation partner Peter Morrison said the case “meets each of (the) requirements” needed to allow the change to go ahead, legal industry magazine Law.com notes.
The latest development is another step in the complex road to court for Ripple investors, four of whom originally brought separate claims against the company over its alleged securities law violations.
The claimants all lost money from purchasing XRP at high prices earlier this year, but opted to sue to include all possible parties affected since 2013.
The lawsuits have now been consolidated into one process.
Commenting on the idea by Ripple’s defence team to switch venue to federal level, securities lawyer Jake Chervinsky applauded what he said was a “slick” move.
“I can't speak to their odds of winning since the case is still so young & I don't know all the facts, but it's fair to say Ripple's lawyers think they have better odds of winning in federal court than in state court (or else they wouldn't be trying so hard to remove the case),” he wrote on Twitter Nov. 9.
XRP has slowly returned to form in recent months meanwhile, last week briefly overtaking Ethereum (ETH) to become the largest altcoin by market capitalization.
In September, Ripple settled another legal dispute with banking consortium R3.