CompaniesLaw Firms Ripple Labs Inc FollowCoinbase Global Inc FollowJuly 13 (Reuters) - Ripple Labs Inc did not violate federal securities law by selling its XRP token on public exchanges, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday, a landmark legal victory for the cryptocurrency industry that sent the value of XRP soaring. An SEC spokesperson said the agency was pleased with part of the ruling in which the judge held that Ripple violated federal securities law by selling XRP directly to sophisticated investors. XRP sales on cryptocurrency platforms by Garlinghouse and co-founder and former CEO Chris Larsen, and other distributions including compensation to employees also did not involve securities, Torres ruled. PARTIAL WIN FOR THE SECThe SEC won a partial victory as Torres found the company's $728.9 million of XRP sales to hedge funds and other sophisticated buyers amounted to unregistered sales of securities. Both the Ripple and Coinbase cases focus on registration requirements and whether certain digital assets are securities under U.S. law.

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Persons: XRP, Analisa Torres, Brad Garlinghouse, We’ve, Torres, Paul Grewal, Chris Larsen, Garlinghouse, Larsen, Gary DeWaal, Rosenman, Tom Emmer, Jody Godoy, Chris Prentice, Tom Hals, Chizu Nomiyama, Conor Humphries, Leslie Adler, David Gregorio Our Organizations: Labs, Ripple Labs, U.S, District, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, SEC, Twitter, Supreme, WIN FOR, Republican, Thomson Locations: U.S, XRP, Katten, New York, Wilmington , Delaware