John Deaton, the attorney for XRP holders, said that the SEC’s position in the Coinbase rulemaking dispute runs counter to what the SEC Chairman said in his earlier this year congressional testimony.
John Deaton, the attorney for the XRP holder in the ongoing legal battle between Coinbase Global Inc. and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has charged Gary Gensler, the top SEC official, of “gaslighting” the public and has taken issue with his position on cryptocurrencies. The trading platform Coinbase’s rulemaking request took a turn for the worse when the SEC denied its petition for three reasons.
These include the necessity of maintaining the Commission’s discretion, the SEC’s involvement in the cryptocurrency securities markets through rulemaking, and the application of existing securities laws to cryptocurrencies.
Even with these obvious facts, Coinbase’s rulemaking request is predicated on the conviction that the crypto ecosystem is unique in terms of asset volatility and that all assets are classified as securities under existing laws, as John Deaton noted in his response to the SEC Chair’s letter, saying “there is NOTHING unique or new about cryptocurrencies.”
Deaton claims that this position is in direct opposition to what the SEC Chairman said in his earlier this year congressional testimony. Deaton recalled that Gary Gensler had claimed during the hearing that the unique characteristics of cryptocurrency place it outside the commission’s purview, creating a regulatory vacuum.
According to Deaton, previous correspondence indicates that Coinbase’s request was based on the SEC’s viewpoint. The attorney representing XRP holders pointed out the SEC Chair’s total 180-degree turn on the cryptocurrency issue, blaming it on political expediencies and Senator Elizabeth Warren’s support.
Through the remarks of the SEC Chairman or the commission’s overall actions, the U.S. SEC has been conveying varying messages about its place in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The regulatory body declined to appeal its loss against Grayscale Investments in the midst of ongoing legal battles over cryptocurrency securities with Coinbase and Binance. The case concerns the business’s endeavour to convert its Bitcoin Trust into a functional exchange-traded fund (ETF).