Pro-XRP activist and attorney in an XRP holder’ class action lawsuit spoke out in another Twitter thread, this time touching on the delisting of the cryptocurrency by Coinbase.
Ripple Lawsuit: How XRP Could Have Stayed on Coinbase, Lawyer Explains
What prompted Deaton to speak out was the news that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has changed its strategy and plans to leverage the Wahi complaint, named after a former Coinbase manager accused of insider trading, to ease its work. According to the lawyer, the SEC is doing this in order to avoid meeting with Coinbase’s legal team, having learned from meeting with the Ripple team.
Career securities lawyers and others scoffed, claiming it would be stupid to “highlight yourself by alienating the SEC.” Plus, in the Complaint, the SEC used fraud-like language even though fraud wasn’t alleged. This caused people to root against Ripple. Divide & Conquer!
— John E Deaton (213K Followers Beware Imposters) (@JohnEDeaton1) August 28, 2022
Coinbase could have opted not to delist XRP when the SEC made that request, but instead go against it and file a motion to intervene, Deaton said. The lawyer’s fear of standing out as a “fighter against the SEC” led the regulator to put further pressure on Coinbase itself, prohibiting it from offering various services, continues the lawyer. According to the CryptoLaw founder, this was the point where Coinbase was supposed to get XRP back on the list and finally file a motion to intervene, but they gave up again, and now they are probably going to face a lawsuit from the SEC itself. Now, according to Deaton, the SEC will build charges and look for evidence against Coinbase in the Wahi case, hoping to break the doubters and eventually come out to regulate all crypto exchanges and the secondary market.
SEC files no objection to Ripple’s request to seal non-party identities in the XRP lawsuit
SEC has decided not to object to Ripple Lab’s request to seal the identities of certain non-parties and Ripple employees in the Daubert motions, as its lawsuit against Ripple drags on. The SEC said on Friday in a letter to Judge Analisa Torres that it does not object to Ripple’s motion filed on Aug. 19 seeking to seal identities of non-parties, certain Ripple employees, and the personal financial information of an employee.
However, the SEC clarified that in doing so, “the SEC does not concede that the above categories of information should properly be sealed for summary judgment briefing, and reserves its rights to oppose similar sealing requests for summary judgment.” A Daubert motion is a type of motion that seeks to exclude the testimony of an expert witness.
The judge granted the SEC’s request to file a reply of up to 90 pages long to its motion that seeks to exclude the testimony of Ripple Labs’ witnesses. In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple alleging that its sale of XRP — the native coin of the XRP Ledger created by Ripple Labs — was an unregistered security offering worth over US$1.38 billion. The SEC also named Ripple’s executive chairman Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse as co-defendants for allegedly aiding and abetting Ripple’s violations.
Earlier this month, the SEC also submitted a reply brief in support of its objections to orders that asked the SEC to disclose drafts of a 2018 speech made by former SEC director William Hinman, which has been a major point of argument between the two as Ripple seeks to bolster its fair notice defense.
Read more:
- Crypto Attorney John Deaton Is Looking At The Former Chair Of SEC For The Lack Of Regulatory
- If Ripple Loses The Lawsuit Against The SEC, Will Things Go In Favor Of The Company?