The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has gone after two of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges this week, filing suits against Binance and Coinbase and making grave allegations about both firms (y i k e s!).
In the wake of the back-to-back enforcement actions, XRP holder’s attorney John E. Deaton has announced he is prepared to also represent the customers of these two exchange giants by submitting an amicus curiae brief in a bid to safeguard their interests in the ongoing cases.
Deaton Considers Amicus Status For Binance And Coinbase Customers
John E. Deaton, the lawyer representing over 75,000 XRP holders, feels the SEC is not working in the best interests of the users of Coinbase and Binance as it claims.
As such, he is calling on customers of these two exchanges to come together and see if they can have their voices heard by participating in the lawsuits as amicus or friends of the court.
In a series of tweets recently, Deaton posited that he did not back Ripple as a firm, and he will also not be taking any position on whether Binance and Coinbase violated securities laws, as the SEC alleges. The CryptoLaw founder noted that the SEC determined that Coinbase’s initial public offering (IPO) was in the public interest before approving it over two years ago, and doing a complete U-turn now only proves that the securities watchdog is not acting in favour of the exchange’s customers.
Deaton said he expects the two digital asset exchanges to defend themselves, not the users. “As I said to the Judge in the Ripple case, I expect Ripple to look out for Ripple and not individual #XRPHolders. The same applies to Coinbase and Binance. But the SEC is NOT acting in the best interests of retail crypto holders and that is for sure. The SEC has an agenda,” he postulated.
While the lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance have not entered the court phase yet, there’s a high possibility that these cases won’t be decided or settled for many years — if the SEC’s three-year-old case against Ripple is any indication. Hence, Deaton is taking action by collecting the details of Coinbase and Binance’s users who want to be represented. The XRP lawyer assured that the customers who fill out their names and emails in the Google form he shared will remain anonymous unless the courts demand the information.
That being said, it’s believed that the judges assigned to the Coinbase and Binance lawsuits will be paying close attention to whether XRP is a security. This means the outcome of the Ripple suit could influence the cases against the two exchanges.
