Ripple, R3 Settle Legal Dispute Over XRPs

One year after news surfaced that blockchain companies Ripple Labs and R3 HoldCo were engaged in a legal dispute, the lawsuit has been resolved, according to a press release issued this week. In a statement, Ripple said the companies “have reached a settlement of all outstanding litigation between the parties.”

The company was tight-lipped on exact details of the settlement, however, noting that the terms of the agreement are “confidential,” and that “both sides look forward to putting these disputes behind them.”

Last September, reports from Reuters said R3 and Ripple had sued each other over option contracts to purchase Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP.

The first lawsuit stated that the companies entered into a contract in September 2016, providing R3 the right to buy up to 5 billion XRPs at $0.0085 per unit until September 2019. According to a claim filed by R3, however, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse attempted to end that options contract via email to R3 CEO David Rutter. R3’s lawsuit argued that Ripple’s contract does not include a termination option.

Ripple then filed a counter lawsuit, reports explained, arguing that the company ended its XRP purchasing contract because R3 failed to deliver on a separate technology partnership that allowed Ripple to access R3’s banking network. Ripple’s filing wanted the court to rule the contracts invalid, reports said at the time.

News of the settlement came a day after reports of another blockchain collaboration, as Chain revealed it would be acquired by Lightyear Corp., which is currently developing on the Stellar blockchain.

“We were looking for a way to help our customers move the projects that we have been working on from a private network to a public one,” said Adam Ludwin, chief executive of Chain. “When we started a few years ago, our customers were not ready for a public network. Fast forward three years, and their willingness has gone up, and the maturity of the public networks has changed a lot.”