u.today
John Deaton, a well-known lawyer and pro-crypto activist in the XRP community, offered a counterpoint to a paragraph in a document in the SEC's lawsuit against Ripple. The claim is that since the crypto company relies on XRP sales to support its operations and capital expenditures, it demonstrates common interest with cryptocurrency holders and gives them the impression that the price of XRP will go up as a result of Ripple's efforts.
This is no doubt one of the strongest general arguments the SEC has, more specifically, software sales compared to XRP sales to fund the business, etc. But how does the evidence go to establish the common enterprise factor? What’s the common enterprise? https://t.co/zLHn3h9fb0
— John E Deaton (@JohnEDeaton1) January 10, 2023
The SEC claims this information as proof that Ripple and XRP are a common enterprise and that the cryptocurrency is a security. The argument is further supported by the fact that Ripple offered crypto exchanges compensation for listing XRP, which according to the Howey test used by the regulator to determine security status, also makes them a common enterprise.
Counterpoint
According to John Deaton, both facts are indisputably the strongest arguments available to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Nevertheless, the lawyer wants to know, what is common enterprise? If a judge were to accept the argument that Ripple stimulated exchanges and wanted to sell XRP and create a secondary market, she would need to recognize that the entire XRP ecosystem, including the exchanges and all the holders, is a common enterprise, Deaton says.
At the same time, indeed, yes, concludes the lawyer: if the court is willing to accept the fact that the entire XRP ecosystem is a common enterprise, it has all the argument in favor of it.