In December 2020, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple and two of its executives: CEO Bradley Garlinghouse and co-founder Christian Larsen.
The SEC alleges that the Ripple executives recklessly disregarded the facts, which"allegedly made XRP amount to the unregistered sale of securities.", Deaton dissected the facts in support of the idea that the Ripple executives were not reckless, as claimed by the SEC. In a long line of tweets, he presented some facts, among which are: in 2013, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen gave a presentation to the SEC, CFTC and other agencies about Ripple's plans to disrupt the global payment system by utilizing XRP. Then, in 2014 and 2015, the USGAO classified XRP as a"virtual currency," along with FinCEN and the DOJ.
He claims that if anyone is granted summary judgment in the case, it would be the Ripple executives because no reasonable jury would conclude that they were reckless. He, however, believes the lawsuit against the Ripple executives is likely to be decided at trial. In March 2022, the individual defendants' motion to have the lawsuit against them dismissed was denied.