XRP Advocate John Deaton Slams SEC Chairman for Harming Small Investors

XRP advocate John Deaton has once again voiced his criticism against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its chairman Gary Gensler, accusing them of harming a large number of small cryptocurrency investors, including those that bet their money on XRP.

He also reminded the XRP community about Gensler’s additional important mishap that made waves among the army of crypto fans. It is worth noting that Deaton is a candidate for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.

Deaton’s critique against SEC and Gensler

John Deaton wrote that he has “100% conviction” that Gary Gensler and the SEC have brought more harm to small investors “than any other person or entity during the last several years.” Besides, he stated that Gensler is not in a hurry to disclose that he had two personal meetings with “the Bernie Madoff of crypto” – founder and former CEO of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Deaton closely follows the legal case started by the SEC against Ripple in December 2020 and regularly shares news of its developments. In July 2023, federal judge Analisa Torres announced a ruling that XRP sales made by Ripple Labs on secondary markets do not qualify as security sales.

SEC labels altcoins as unregistered securities

Still, the legal battle continues. Ripple boss Brad Garlinghouse has recently, perhaps a little jestingly, shared that he expects the judge to make a final ruling in September and see this long-running legal case finished in favor of Ripple.

Overall, the SEC has announced a witch-hunt against cryptocurrency platforms based in the U.S. and altcoins traded or lent on them. The SEC has proclaimed altcoins, except for XRP to a certain degree now, as unregistered securities, in which a lot of crypto users are invested. Gensler claims that there is a lot of noncompliance in the cryptocurrency space, hence the recent SEC activity against altcoins and crypto exchanges.

About the author

Yuri Molchan

Yuri is interested in technology and technical innovations. He has been writing about DLT and crypto since 2017. Believes that blockchain and cryptocurrencies have a potential to transform the world in the future in many of its aspects. He has written for multiple crypto media outlets.

His articles have been quoted by such crypto influencers as Tyler Winklevoss, John McAfee, CZ Binance, Max Keiser, etc.