John Deaton, a prominent lawyer and supporter of Ripple (XRP), evaluated a possible agreement between Ripple and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
As it is known, in December 2020, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued Ripple for allegedly selling XRP as unregistered security. In the ongoing litigation process, there has been a remarkable development recently. The SEC and Ripple Labs have requested an additional one-week extension to the time it takes to make the Hinman documents public.
The documents in question include SEC deliberations about a speech by former SEC Director William Hinman in 2018 in which he said in an official capacity that both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are not securities. In other words, these so-called Hinman documents highlight an important point about the case. The Hinman documents contain the SEC’s assessments of whether XRP is a security. Ripple hopes to strengthen its own defense with the disclosure of these documents. On the other hand, the SEC’s reluctance to disclose the Hinman documents is interpreted by some as an indication of their inability to develop a strong defense strategy.
The recent request by Ripple and the SEC has been interpreted by some market experts as a sign of a deal. But pro-XRP attorney John Deaton believes that the release of the Hinman documents will not settle the case. Deaton’s to their statements according to:
“There are many comments as to whether this delay is for reconciliation talks. If the Hinman emails were to lead to a compromise, it would have happened before those documents were delivered to Ripple. I think the SEC has accepted that the Hinman emails will eventually go public.”
Deaton believes that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, who is hostile to the crypto industry, is determined to take the years-long lawsuit to the end.
“The gens are at full throttle. How can he sue Coinbase by admitting that XRP is not a security and claiming that others are?”
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