It seems that the next update regarding the SEC v. Ripple Labs lawsuit will come a little later than expected. To be specific, the court granted both parties’ request to move the expert deposition from 14 January to 19 January 2022. The reason? Well, it was reported to be scheduling conflicts.
In the meantime, however, crypto-lawyer John Deaton, who is representing the interests of thousands of XRP holders, was a guest on the PBD podcast. During his appearance, he shared his views on the case and the possible outcome for XRP investors.
Don’t judge me
Deaton first helped viewers catch up with the lawsuit’s proceedings, by reminding them of the arguments relating to the SEC’s deliberative process privilege – or an agency’s right to shield documents linked to its decision-making processes.
Speaking to Patrick Bet-David, he said,
“It is the internal documents at the SEC, their documents on Bitcoin, their documents on Ethereum. There’s even a document dated…June 13 2018, on evaluating XRP and whether it’s a security, and the SEC has refused to turn any of these documents over. They’re claiming they’re privileged, and they’re claiming they’re privileged, Pat, even though they claim that they’ve never made an official declaration on Bitcoin or Ethereum.”
Furthermore, Deaton disagreed with the idea that Ripple and XRP holders were working together. Claiming he had spoken to 60,000 people, Deaton argued that among first-time purchasers of XRP, 52.8% had never even heard of the company Ripple.
On the question of how the lawsuit might end, Deaton explained,
“At some point Ripple could tap out and say, “Listen, we’ll go with a certain designation, we can only sell to accredited investors now.” You know, there’s ways to get around it, but I don’t see it happening. I see it either settling, you know, because of those rulings that come down, or it goes to verdict.”
Deaton concluded by citing that there was a previous case, one where a jury decided that a digital asset wasn’t an unregistered security.
As of press time, both Ripple and the SEC had filed supplementary letter briefs to expand their arguments. This was a result of a court ruling in the Natural Resources Defense Council [NRDC] v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] case. The latter led to updating the scope of deliberative process privilege.
The SEC, however, continues to maintain that all of its documents are protected by the defense.
Proof of Controversy
Ripple Co-founder Chris Larsen has been in the news lately after proposing a way for Bitcoin miners to help save the environment. Larsen suggested shifting away from the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism and changing the code in order to reward miners while reducing their carbon footprint.
As expected, reactions were mixed, with many Bitcoin proponents claiming that such a move would destroy the very identity of the coin.
You may have seen me and others advocate for Bitcoin to move away from PoW to address energy consumption long term. A common pushback is that miners would never get on board with this. Well today I’m proposing a solution to that! 1/2 https://t.co/U8YstHPZOA
— Chris Larsen (@chrislarsensf) December 9, 2021
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