SAN FRANCISCO  — The pioneering securities class action litigation over the Tezos blockchain project looks like it will be split into two separate proceedings, after a federal judge ruled that one of the cases should be sent back to state court.

U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of the Northern District of California, in an order Thursday evening, agreed with San Diego securities lawyer James Taylor-Copeland that his case—the first to be filed against Tezos over its $232 million initial coin offering—belongs back in San Francisco Superior Court.