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- 1 Deaton highlights a footnote from last year that can turn the tables on the case
- 2 He believes that internal debates have occurred within the SEC regarding XRP being a security.
- 3 Hinman documents are to be presented in court on June 13
John Deaton, the pro-XRP lawyer, believes that a footnote from Ripple’s opposition brief in 2022 could play an essential role for Ripple in the ongoing battle against the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SEC’s internal debate on XRP
Deaton recently shared a lot of his opinions and facts regarding the Ripple case on his Twitter space. On May 22, he tweeted on Twitter explaining the discovery of a shirt footnote in Ripple’s legal document. He shared that he recently noticed that SEC staff discussed XRP just prior to the Hinman speech.
The document is quite significant as a debate by SEC officials on whether XRP is a security or not could turn the tables in Ripple vs the Securities and Exchange Commission case.
The Securities and Exchange Commission took action against Ripple in December 2020, alleging the company of its token sale (XRP) as an unregistered securities offering.
Ripple has been arguing that their cryptocurrency XRP is not a security as it did not qualify the criteria of the Howey test and that it cannot be called a security.
Did the SEC Discuss Ripple?
Deaton believes the footnote that recently caught his eye comes from a third-party outside of the SEC.
The footnote stated that there are enough reasonable grounds to believe that the Ripple offered XRP is not a security. It further stated that XRP doesn’t match all the parameters of security according to the Howey analysis. Therefore, according to the Federal Securities law, it cannot be considered a security.
In a recently held Twitter space with Journalist Eleanor Terrett of Fox Business, Deaton argued that the footnote clearly states that XRP was not a security and that someone has cited a person from SEC saying so. Deaton also believes that there could’ve been an email forwarded regarding this in the same email chain.
Deaton further added in Ripple’s defense that he is quite sure it is not a SECoffiial but still, it is very big news. He said it is in the litigation emails and it proves that XRP is not a security.
While there’s no record of the SEC making any comment on XRP, Deaton reminded that back in 2018, other than Bitcoin and Ethereum, XRP was the third largest crypto asset.
Deaton pointed out Hinman’s speech where it was said that Bitcoin and Ethereum shouldn’t be considered securities. Adding to the speech he mentioned that if both of them weren’t treated as securities then some SEC members might have believed XRP was no different.
Deaton in response to a media house pointed out that citation in the emails is the biggest hint. The email has “SEC-LIT” whereas the other emails had the citation “SEC-PROD”.
Deaton further explained on a Twitter space that these documents are the drafts of Hinman’s speech which the SEC tried to protect with a motion to seal which was later denied.
Adding to that Deaton tweeted that he’s sure these statements about XRP were not made by an SEC official or they would’ve been redacted.
Deaton told the community to keep an eye on June 13 when the Hinman documents will be unsealed and how much they can affect the case.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.
