John Deaton calls SEC vs Ripple case “the most significant non-fraud SEC enforcement action in modern history”
- Pro-XRP attorney John Deaton recently commented on the SEC’s request to Coinbase to halt trading of all tokens except Bitcoin.
- Deaton believes that the US financial regulator has an anti-crypto stance and the XRP ruling protected the ecosystem from the SEC’s full force.
- Deaton argues every coin is in danger and the XRP ruling is significant to all market participants and projects in crypto.
XRP holder community is awaiting the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) next steps to appeal versus Judge Torres’ ruling on XRP status as a security. Amidst the anticipation surrounding the ruling, pro-XRP attorney John Deaton has made more comments on the recent information about the SEC lawsuit against Coinbase.
Deaton explained the relationship between the XRP ruling and the crypto ecosystem, arguing that no cryptocurrency is safe from the SEC’s anti-crypto stance.
XRP ruling and its impact on cryptocurrencies listed on Coinbase
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told the Financial Times in an interview that the US SEC requested the exchange to halt trading for all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin. Armstrong said that the SEC believes every asset other than Bitcoin is a security and that the regulator refused to explain how the agency arrived at such a conclusion.
The request was to delist from the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world every asset other than Bitcoin. Deaton used these words by Armstrong to remind the XRP community how important Judge Torres’ ruling is. According to Deaton, all cryptocurrencies in the ecosystem are “in danger” of the full-force of the SEC coming at them, if XRP was proven to be an investment contract/ security.
The ruling makes it clear that XRP is not a security in itself, however the altcoin can be considered as a security depending on the circumstances of the transaction or sale. Deaton believes that this XRP ruling is a win for the crypto ecosystem and that the SEC vs Ripple case is “the most significant non-fraud SEC enforcement action in modern history”, since 1946.
Deaton’s argument for why “every coin is in danger”
John Deaton had already warned the crypto community nearly a year ago that the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple could emerge as a groundbreaking one, as the regulator’s argument could be applied to every single asset. Deaton wrote to the SEC, asking the regulator to limit their claims against Ripple, to the way the firm sells XRP, instead of a blanket reference to the asset.
At the beginning of the video I say: “I’m going to prove why everyone, even if you hate @Ripple and despise XRP, should be hoping the SEC falls flat on its face.” https://t.co/88PgXCMs4r
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) July 31, 2023
The SEC filed its first amended complaint against Ripple on February 19, in the southern district of New York, and the regulator’s response was to refer to XRP as a “digital asset security.” This is where, Deaton explains, the regulator clarified their stance on cryptocurrencies and shifted its stance from 2013 to the present, referring to assets as “securities” instead of referring to the circumstances of sale of the asset.
SEC vs Ripple lawsuit FAQs
It depends on the transaction, according to a court ruling released on July 14:
For institutional investors or over-the-counter sales, XRP is a security.
For retail investors who bought the token via programmatic sales on exchanges, on-demand liquidity services and other platforms, XRP is not a security.
The United States Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Ripple and its executives of raising more than $1.3 billion through an unregistered asset offering of the XRP token.
While the judge ruled that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, sales of XRP tokens to institutional investors are indeed investment contracts. In this last case, Ripple did breach the US securities law and will need to keep litigating over the around $729 million it received under written contracts.
The ruling offers a partial win for both Ripple and the SEC, depending on what one looks at.
Ripple gets a big win over the fact that programmatic sales aren’t considered securities, and this could bode well for the broader crypto sector as most of the assets eyed by the SEC’s crackdown are handled by decentralized entities that sold their tokens mostly to retail investors via exchange platforms, experts say.
Still, the ruling doesn’t help much to answer the key question of what makes a digital asset a security, so it isn’t clear yet if this lawsuit will set precedent for other open cases that affect dozens of digital assets. Topics such as which is the right degree of decentralization to avoid the “security” label or where to draw the line between institutional and programmatic sales are likely to persist.
The SEC has stepped up its enforcement actions toward the blockchain and digital assets industry, filing charges against platforms such as Coinbase or Binance for allegedly violating the US Securities law. The SEC claims that the majority of crypto assets are securities and thus subject to strict regulation.
While defendants can use parts of Ripple’s ruling in their favor, the SEC can also find reasons in it to keep its current strategy of regulation by enforcement.
The court decision is a partial summary judgment. The ruling can be appealed once a final judgment is issued or if the judge allows it before then. The case is in a pretrial phase, in which both Ripple and the SEC still have the chance to settle.
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