Two of the biggest blockchain startups in the payment processing space are now involved in a legal dispute. R3 brought the lawsuit to Ripple on Friday from a Delaware court. The dispute is based on an options contract that was granted to R3 to buy some of Ripple's XRP tokens.
The two companies signed the agreement in September 2016. The terms of the agreement stipulated that R3 had the right to buy up to 5bn XRPs at a price of $0.0085 per XRP. The agreement was meant to run until September 2019.
The lawsuit alleges that in June 2017, the CEO of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse attempted to terminate the agreement through an email to R3's CEO.
R3 is of the view that the agreement did not give Ripple the right to terminate the agreement unilaterally. They want the court to confirm that they do indeed have all of the rights that are outlined in the agreement including the right to purchase the XRP.
The agreement was entered into by both parties as a pretext to further collaboration for blockchain projects. Both companies are working on technology that can be used by banks and financial institutions for sending payments. Ripple responded to the lawsuit by R3 with their filing their own paper and counter suing.
According to Ripple, they had cancelled the agreement with R3 when they failed to deliver on some technology that would give Ripple access to their network of banks. They are therefore requesting that the court recognise the invalidity of the contract and that R3 pay for costs associated with the trial. According to a Ripple spokesperson:
Our filing is straightforward – R3 misrepresented their ability and intent to deliver on their commitments,
