John Deaton, a crypto and pro-Ripple lawyer, thinks there is “no way Ripple,” the blockchain company whose two key executives were sued by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will abandon XRP, the native currency of the XRPL.
Based on Deaton’s assessment, Ripple has a “fiduciary duty” not to dump the coin regardless of the state of the market or the regulatory environment the firm or XRP finds itself in.
Ripple Won’t Abandon XRP: Crypto Lawyer
Taking to X on November 2, the crypto lawyer highlighted the firm’s growth over the years since first raising funds in 2015. Then, after obtaining its Serie A funding, it was valued at 128 million.
In 2020, Ripple was valued at $10 billion during its Serie C funding round, first announced in December 2019. The funding round raised $200 million, with Tegragon leading and SBI Holdings, a key Ripple partner in Southeast Asia, also participating. The share price at this round wasn’t made public. A year later, in December 2022, Ripple bought back its Series C shares at a 50% higher price, as noted by Deaton.
The lawyer assesses that Ripple’s decision to buy back its Series C shares meant that the company was bullish on what lay ahead despite the state of the market and the regulatory challenges at that time. In 2022, Ripple and the SEC were still embroiled in a case after the regulator filed a lawsuit in December 2020. The agency alleged that Ripple raised over $1 billion in funds through an illegal initial coin offering (ICO) where they issued XRP, a crypto asset they were insistent was an unregistered security.
XRP Is Not A Security, Will Prices Rally Beyond $1?
In July 2023, Judge Analisa Torres of the Southern District of New York ruled that Ripple’s sale of XRP to retail investors via crypto exchanges didn’t constitute an unregistered securities offering. Moreover, the Judge said it didn’t find evidence to suggest that the company led retail investors into believing they were buying securities with the expectation of profit.
Deaton estimates that Ripple owns roughly 48 billion XRP. Considering its prospects, now that the status of XRP has been clarified in the United States, the crypto lawyer thinks abandoning XRP will be “insane.” Looking at price charts, XRP is in a bullish formation.
The coin is presently up 32% from September 2023 lows. However, it is still trending inside the July 13 trade range, as evident in the daily chart. Since bears didn’t force prices below $0.46, the uptrend remains, and XRP may eventually retest July highs at $0.93, even floating to $1.