Deaton Recognizes Ripple Effort in Making “Fortress Customers Whole”

12.09.2023

Attorney Deaton says Ripple has made Fortress Trust’s customers whole despite splashing $200 million in legal fees defending itself against the SEC.

Crypto-Law.US founder Attorney John Deaton has reacted to reports of Ripple’s potential acquisition of Fortress Trust.

The Crypto Basic reported earlier that, as part of the deal, Ripple covered losses suffered by customers of the blockchain infrastructure, making them whole.

Notably, the development was shared by popular Bitcoin maximalist Simon Dixon, who highlighted reports suggesting that Ripple covered losses suffered by Fortress clients during a security incident.

Deaton Reacts

Reacting to the development, Deaton applauded Ripple for making Fortress customers whole despite spending over $200 million in legal fees fighting a lawsuit filed by the SEC.

“Of course, Ripple and Garlinghouse got sued and it cost them $200 million in legal fees. And now, it’s Ripple, who has made customers of Fortress whole,” Deaton said.

The lawyer, who represented over 75K XRP holders in the lawsuit, pondered what Ripple could have done with the funds if the company had not spent it on the lawsuit.

Per Deaton, it is ironic that many people once heralded former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) as the savior of crypto.

However, he added that some industry members, like Bitcoin maximalist Cory Klippsten, saw Ripple as the bad actor despite an SEC investigation that lasted two years and six months.

Attorney Deaton asked how many crypto companies could have survived an extensive 30-month investigation as Ripple did.

Government & the Public Know More About Ripple

Furthermore, Deaton recounted how the Department of Justice mandated Ripple to hire an independent auditor to account for the company’s XRP sales for five years, starting in 2015.

He also highlighted Ripple’s publication of XRP quarterly reports as another major effort the company takes toward shedding light on its operations.

As a result, Deaton said both the government and the public knew more about Ripple than any other non-public company.

Ethereum Co-Founder Embarked on SEC Publicity Tour

However, Deaton said the crypto community cannot say the same thing for Ethereum. He highlighted some controversial meetings Ethereum founders Joseph Lubin and Vitalik Buterin had with former SEC official Bill Hinman.

Additionally, Deaton said Lubin went on a publicity tour, praising the SEC for being an “amazing cop on the beat.” The Ethereum co-founder also publicly stated that BTC and ETH were the only two crypto assets with regulatory clarity, according to Deaton.

“Lubin’s celebration of the SEC went as far as recently praising Gary Gensler as the ‘shining knight of decentralization.’ Not a joke,” Attorney Deaton added.