NEWS

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XRP tokenholders have attempted to insert themselves as third-party defendants in
the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple
Labs.

A motion to intervene was filed by John Deaton of Deaton Law Firm on Sunday on

behalf of over 6,000 XRP holders. Deaton, himself an XRP holder, argued that the
interests of tokenholders were not being adequately represented in the securities
lawsuit against Ripple Labs and its executives.

Deaton’s argument builds upon the refutation of any securities violations by Ripple
Labs. Specifically, if XRP is not a security — as Ripple executives Bradley
Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen claim — then the efforts of Ripple executives
have no bearing on the performance of XRP.

For this reason, Deaton, along with over 6,000 concerned tokenholders, have
moved to intervene as third-party defendants. The filing states:

“Given SEC’s own statements that this Court is the exclusive forum to hear
claims regarding this matter, and Ripple’s position that XRP holders cannot
rely on Ripple’s efforts as protection of their interests in this case and the
nature of Ripple’s defense, the XRP Holders’ intervention is necessary.”

In an announcement posted to Deaton’s website, CryptoLaw, on Sunday, the lawyer

and cryptocurrency enthusiast claimed that XRP holders had suffered $15 billion in
losses in the days immediately following the SEC’s announcement of its lawsuit
against Ripple Labs. In the two weeks following the commencement of the lawsuit,
XRP's price sunk 76% from $0.76 down to $0.18.

The falling token price was triggered in part by the decision of major cryptocurrency
exchanges to delist XRP in the wake of the lawsuit. Numerous major exchanges
including Binance.US, eToro, Coinbase, Bittrex and OKCoin removed XRP from their
respective platforms. Investment services such as Grayscale also liquidated XRP
holdings, choosing to convert them into more Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and
Litecoin (LTC).

In January, Deaton, on behalf of XRP holders, filed a petition asking that the SEC

distinguish between the XRP sales carried out by Ripple executives and the XRP
purchases made by individual tokenholders on secondary exchange markets. The
filing also requested that any funds received from a possible Ripple settlement be
diverted to a collective trust for use by XRP holders who incurred losses due to the
SEC’s actions. The request was dismissed by the SEC.

On Thursday, Ripple executives Garlinghouse and Larsen refuted the SEC’s

demands to investigate the finer details of their personal finances. Garlinghouse
and Larsen called for a protective order to block an investigation into their personal
accounts, arguing that their personal and professional finances were not
intertwined. The legal team also called for courts to quash subpoenas issued to six
banks used by Garlinghouse and Larsen.