According to a report from Bloomberg on Jan. 6, Tetragon, one of the lead investors in a $200 million Series C funding round for Ripple in 2019, has filed a complaint against the firm in the Delaware Chancery Court.
According to Cointelegraph, the investment company alleges that it is seeking a court to “enforce its contractual right to require Ripple to redeem” Series C preferred stock held by Tetragon. Additionally, the company is petitioning the court to stop Ripple from using “any cash or other liquid assets” until the matter is settled.
Ripple has responded to the allegations, stating the lawsuit has “no merit” and accusing Tetragon of taking advantage of “the lack of regulatory clarity” in the United States in filing the suit.
Amid lawsuits from both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and now Tetragon, XRP has lost its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. According to data from CoinMarketCap, XRP’s $10.3 billion market cap sits behind Litecoin’s $10.5, with LTC having grown by 26% over the past seven days while XRP’s market cap has stagnated. On Sunday, Litecoin first “flipped” XRP, but it was a short-lived move.
In December, the SEC charged Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen with conducting an “unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering” for their XRP sales. The case is planned for a virtual pretrial conference in February.
Following the news, crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Bittrex, OKCoin, Bitstamp, OSL, Beaxy, and CrossTower have distanced themselves from XRP. Some have announced they would suspend trading for XRP, while others will delist the token entirely.
The price of XRP is $0.22 at the time of publication, having fallen 70% since late November.