SAN FRANCISCO — Fintech company Ripple Labs is facing a new lawsuit alleging that it has been conducting a “never-ending initial coin offering” in violation of securities laws. But though there may be ICO litigation aplenty nowadays, this is not your typical case.

The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, comes after chatter on social media about whether the tokens developed by Ripple—called XRP tokens or “Ripples”—are actually unregistered securities. That idea suddenly seemed to gain more traction after Gary Gensler, a former top financial regulator, told The New York Times he believed Ripple and Ether were probably both issued in violation of securities laws.