XRP Lawyer Says Satoshi Nakamoto’s BTC Could Have Been Securities

The argument about the securities status of XRP is getting more heated and has now been compared to the world’s largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC). According to the pro-crypto lawyer and legal representative for XRP holders John Deaton, there is a possibility that regulators could have considered BTC to be securities during Satoshi Nakamoto’s time.

In his explanation, if Nakamoto, the supposed founder of Bitcoin had put up 100,000 coins for sale at a value of $100,000, regulators would have probably described the situation as offering unregistered securities. Lawyer Deaton made this statement as part of his grievance against United States regulators in connection to the crypto market and legislation.

Deaton’s theory does not seem to resonate with a statement made earlier by Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Gensler categorized all crypto assets including Ethereum (ETH) as securities but he left Bitcoin out of the classification.

“Everything other than bitcoin, you can find a website, you can find a group of entrepreneurs, they might set up their legal entities in a tax haven offshore, they might have a foundation, they might lawyer it up to try to arbitrage and make it hard jurisdictionally or so forth,” the SEC Chairman said, “But at the core, these tokens are securities because there’s a group in the middle, and the public is anticipating profits based on that group.”

Lawyer Deaton Disregards Howey Test

Meanwhile, the pro-crypto lawyer Deaton criticized the inappropriate use of the term “investment contract” by policymakers and regulators to define certain digital assets. In his opinion, it is one of the most misunderstood terms in law at present, especially amongst regulators like the SEC. Additionally, Deaton disregarded the Howey test as a tool for defining securities.

However, he did not fail to agree that both subjects of law existed in the middle of the 20th century. Deaton opines that the method of distribution of any cryptocurrency should not determine whether it is unregistered security or not.

For now, the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit is still ongoing and in the last hearing, Ripple gained an advantage over the regulator after citing Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy filing.