Attorney and XRP supporter John Deaton talks about the chance of a settlement between payments company Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
On Friday, Ripple sent a motion to Judge Analisa Torres asking for an extra week to file public, redacted versions of the firm’s cross-motions for summary judgment and the Hinman papers.
On May 18, Judge Torres said that papers about the very controversial “Hinman emails” should be made public.
The documents show how the SEC talked about former SEC Director William Hinman’s speech in 2018. In that speech, he said that Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are not securities in his official position.
People think that the SEC and Ripple may be using the time to work out the terms of a settlement in the lawsuit that is still going on.
But John Deaton, a lawyer for XRP, thinks that the SEC is likely to see the case through to the end even if the Hinman papers are made public.
“A lot of comments about whether this delay is for settlement discussions. If the Hinman emails led to a settlement, it would’ve been before they turned them over to Ripple. I believe the SEC has accepted that the Hinman emails will eventually be made public.”
Deaton says he thinks SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has been against the crypto business, is determined to see the lawsuit through to the end, even though it has been going on for years.
“I know many people hope I’m wrong because they want this over. I’ve been wrong before, and I hope I’m wrong now. Hell, I’ll jump up and celebrate being wrong. But Gensler is moving forward full steam. How can he agree XRP is not a security but sue Coinbase claiming the others are?”
In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple for selling XRP without having it listed as a security.
