{"id":27140,"date":"2025-05-16T13:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=27140"},"modified":"2025-05-16T13:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:03:21","slug":"lawyer-deaton-says-xrp-lawsuit-not-over-yet-warns-of-heavy-burden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=27140","title":{"rendered":"Lawyer Deaton Says XRP Lawsuit Not Over Yet, Warns Of \u2018Heavy Burden"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ripple\u2019s seemingly tidy settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the XRP lawsuit has hit a procedural wall. During a late-night X livestream<\/a> on 15 May, attorney John E. Deaton dissected Judge Analisa Torres\u2019s order refusing to \u201crubber-stamp\u201d a joint motion that would have lifted the injunction on Ripple\u2019s institutional XRP sales and cut the civil penalty to $50 million. Deaton characterised the order, which he read aloud at length, as a \u201ccurveball\u201d that leaves both parties facing what the judge called a \u201cheavy burden\u201d before any relief will be granted.<\/p>\n

XRP Lawsuit Faces Further Delay<\/h2>\n

According to Deaton, the parties had asked Judge Torres for an indicative ruling that would let the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit remand the case for settlement. Ripple had agreed to drop its own cross-appeal if the court would dissolve the permanent injunction that currently bars the company from further institutional-level XRP sales and reduce the civil penalty<\/a> from roughly $150 million to $50 million. The SEC, for its part, had already abandoned its challenge<\/a> to Torres\u2019s holding that secondary-market XRP trading does not constitute a securities offering.<\/p>\n

Judge Torres declined. Reading from the order, Deaton quoted the court\u2019s central criticism: \u201cBy styling their motion as one for settlement approval, the parties fail to address the heavy burden they must overcome to vacate the injunction and substantially reduce the civil penalty.\u201d The judge, he said, noted that relief of that kind is available only under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60, which demands \u201cexceptional circumstances\u201d\u2014and she added pointedly that \u201cthe parties have made no effort to satisfy that burden\u201d because \u201ctheir request does not even mention the rule.\u201d<\/p>\n

Deaton told viewers he had expected a straightforward sign-off\u2014\u201cI thought the judge would rubber-stamp it\u201d\u2014and suggested that Torres\u2019s refusal reflects frustration after five years of sprawling litigation. \u201cDo you know how much time, energy and resources that this judge put into this case?\u201d he asked. Estimating combined legal costs by Ripple and the SEC at around a quarter-billion dollars, he added: \u201cNow the SEC comes around and says, \u2018Just kidding.\u2019 The judge is saying, \u2018Not so fast.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In Deaton\u2019s analysis, the order does not undo Ripple\u2019s prior victories, including Torres\u2019s July 2023 summary-judgment<\/a> finding that programmatic sales and secondary trading of XRP are not investment-contract securities. It does, however, mean that the permanent injunction against direct institutional sales\u2014and the original, larger monetary penalty\u2014remain in place unless the parties return with a properly framed Rule 60 motion that satisfies the public-interest test.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judge is saying to the SEC and Ripple, \u2018I\u2019m not rubber-stamping anything. You need to put together an argument that convinces me that it is in the public\u2019s best interest,\u2019\u201d Deaton said, stressing that such a showing must persuade Torres that removing the injunction will not harm investors or the market.<\/p>\n

He predicted that the SEC will \u201chave to fall on its sword\u201d in any renewed submission, perhaps acknowledging that Congress is weighing bespoke digital-asset legislation and that most major crypto assets now trade more like commodities than securities: \u201cThey\u2019ve got to cite that digital assets are akin to commodities and there is no victim here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the stream Deaton underscored that the development is procedural rather than substantive, yet still significant. \u201cUltimately this is just going to be another speed bump along the way, but it is a curveball,\u201d he said, warning that the detour could postpone final resolution by \u201cseveral more months.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, the August 2024 judgment stands exactly as entered: Ripple remains enjoined from unregistered institutional sales of XRP and owes a civil penalty calculated on that basis; the SEC\u2019s claims regarding secondary-market trading are dismissed; and the appeals in the Second Circuit will proceed unless the parties craft a fresh motion convincing Judge Torres that extraordinary circumstances warrant a different outcome.<\/p>\n

Deaton summed up the road ahead with wary optimism: \u201cI think, ultimately, this settlement will get done\u2014but the XRP lawsuit is not over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

At press time, XRP traded at $2.42.<\/p>\n

\"XRP<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ripple\u2019s seemingly tidy settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in the XRP lawsuit has hit a procedural wall. During a late-night X livestream on 15 May, attorney John E. Deaton dissected Judge Analisa Torres\u2019s order refusing to \u201crubber-stamp\u201d a joint motion that would have lifted the injunction on Ripple\u2019s institutional XRP sales and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-27140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}