The legal showdown between Ripple and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has had several twists and turns in the past few weeks. In the latest development, both parties filed a joint brief schedule for remedies discovery and briefing on Thursday, November 9.
As expected, this step has sparked different reactions from various angles of the crypto community. John Deaton, a renowned attorney and vocal XRP supporter, is one of the personalities to weigh in on the recent development in the Ripple vs. SEC legal saga.
Ripple Will Pay A Lot Less Than $770 Million: Deaton
In a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), John Deaton asserted that Ripple will not pay anything close to $770 million in disgorgement to the United States. This statement came in agreement with the post of Jeremy Hogan, another pro-XRP lawyer, who cited the Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd. case as a strategic precedent that could benefit the payment company.
As I said on @CryptoLawUS, Ripple will not come close to paying $770M. Want to know how arrogant and broken the SEC is? The SEC seeks disgorgement related to #XRP sales in the U.K., Japan, Switzerland, etc.
Not only does the Supreme Court’s Morrison decision exclude those… https://t.co/SjqCmVlaPE
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) November 10, 2023
Deaton said in one of the posts:
The SEC seeks disgorgement related to #XRP sales in the UK, Japan, Switzerland, etc. Not only does the Supreme Court’s Morrison decision exclude those sales, but XRP is deemed a non-security in those and other jurisdictions.
Deaton explained further that the XRP sales were legitimate in those jurisdictions, as declared by each country’s financial regulator. “The UK’s FCA (the UK’s version of the SEC) deemed XRP an exchange/utility token – NOT a security token. Same thing with Japan’s FSA – XRP is not a security,” the attorney said.
Furthermore, Deaton mentioned that after the deduction of the XRP sales to non-US investors, there will also be a deduction of sales to accredited investors.
Deaton also noted that the SEC’s case against Ripple is not a fraud charge, and the commission would have to tie the disgorgement to investors who were harmed. And, according to the pro-XRP lawyer, most (if not all) institutional investors were not harmed by the XRP sales as they likely purchased the tokens at a lower price than it is today.
XRP Price Overview
As of this writing, XRP is valued at roughly $0.671, reflecting a more than 2.3% price increase in the past 24 hours. The altcoin enjoyed renewed bullish momentum over the past week, with its value climbing by nearly 10%.
According to data from CoinGecko, XRP witnessed a 34.6% decline in trading volume in the past day, signaling a fall in market activity. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency ranks as the fifth-largest crypto asset, with a market cap of more than $36 billion.
XRP price retraces on the daily timeframe | Source: XRPUSDT chart on TradingView
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView