There was another turning point in the ongoing battle between distributed ledger technology company Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

On Monday, October 4th, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that individuals holding the company’s XRP token cannot appear as defendants in Ripple’s ongoing lawsuit.

This decision comes after some XRP token holders intend to file pleadings with “friends of the court” to enable them to join the lawsuit as defendants and support Ripple in claiming that the token does not violate securities laws.

Judge Torres alleged that allowing XRP holders to participate in the lawsuit “would force the SEC to take enforcement action against them,” according to Law360. She added that this will also delay the event that Ripple and Token holders push for a quick fix.

However, the judge found that the token holder can participate as an “amicus curiae” – a party not involved in the case but empowered by the court to advise or provide information. Torres says:

“The court concluded that Amici status struck a fair balance between the ability of attorneys to advance their interests in the case and the parties to maintain control of the case.”

Ripple’s advisor Andrew Ceresney said they were pleased with the result that XRP owners can now “share their meaningful views with the court.”

In a request for intervention filed in March, XRP owners claimed they could lose billions of dollars if regulators won the case. It also questioned the SEC’s stated motive to protect investors.

To protect investors, the SEC is demanding $ 1.3 billion in alleged ill-gotten gains from named defendants, but by claiming that XRP could generate unregistered securities today, the SEC has given XRP holders more than 15 Billions of dollars in damages inflicted, “the filing stated.

Related: XRP buyers are returning to Ripple arguing that it is not a security

In a September blog post, Deaton wrote that it was unfair for Ethereum to have a regulatory “free token” for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) while Ripple is being punished. The XRP circulation has been tightly controlled by the San Francisco-based company, which still holds about 55% of the supply in trust.

In an interview on October 4, Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin hit back and sided with the regulator, claiming they have legal claims against Ripple:

“[The SEC] There may be legitimate arguments in the cases under discussion. I don’t think the SEC is trying to stifle innovation. “