Lawyer John Deaton, who proactively supported more than 75,000 XRP investors in the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) through an amicus brief, has published a prediction for the year 2023 on Twitter.
Although the statement was a bit late – one prediction had already come true – there was one prediction in particular that caused quite a stir. In a tweet, the lawyer joined the litigation write:
1) The Ripple case is not over until after we get a decision from Judge Torres;
2) An exchange (maybe more than one) is sued for selling unregistered securities;
3) Investigating in SBFraud meetings uncovering bad things;
4) Gensler resigned before EOY.
What Does This Mean For Ripple?
The thesis that gets the most attention is about the outcome of court cases. The XRP community was initially confused by the prediction that the Ripple case would only be settled after the decision of judge Analisa Torres. Due to the confusion, Deaton stated in a follow-up tweet:
Some people are confused about my prediction that the Ripple case won’t end until after Judge Torres makes his decision. A settlement could happen after that would eliminate a potential jury trial and also eliminate a potential appeal.
As Bitcoinist reported, Deaton indicated just two weeks ago that he expected a ruling from Judge Analisa Torres and not a settlement between Ripple and the SEC. The lawyer pointed out that the Hinman document may not be as much of a bargaining chip for Ripple as it seems.
Deaton speculated that the only other reason for the SEC and chairman Gary Gensler to avoid a ruling is that the Ripple case set a bad precedent. Therefore, Deaton said:
I do not believe that they will establish and publicly agree that the ongoing and future sales of XRP, including in the secondary market, are non-securities.
Deaton Is Right On Number 2
Deaton’s second prophecy has come true. Back in July last year, lawyers first predicted that the SEC would target cryptocurrency exchanges and prosecute them. Yesterday, when the SEC indicted the Gemini exchange and crypto broker Genesis for selling crypto products allegedly as unregistered securities to the public, prediction number 2 was fulfilled.
Meanwhile, Gensler’s actions were heavily criticized in the crypto industry, because the SEC chairman once again – as in the case of FTX – acted when it was too late. Criticism even came from politicians.
Congressman for Minnesota Tom Emmer stated“Gary Gensler is once again late to the game, ‘protecting’ no one. It’s clear that the strategy of ‘regulation over enforcement’ politics is bothering Americans every day.
In recent days, XRP price has shown strong momentum and broke the important resistance at $0.3732. At press time, the price is at $0.3779.
Featured images from sergeitokmakov / Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com