Deaton Doubles Down: XRP Army’s Legal Crusade Reignites in 2025

Ripple's favorite lawyer fires the first shot—again. The XRP community braces for another high-stakes courtroom showdown as regulatory wolves circle.

Battle lines redrawn

John Deaton isn't just representing crypto holders—he's leading a financial revolution. This time, the fight's personal: a direct challenge to the SEC's chokehold on digital assets.

Why this matters

Win here, and it cracks Wall Street's favorite regulatory weapon. Lose? Another 'I told you so' from Jamie Dimon's golf buddies. The XRP Army's betting their lawyer punches harder than the suits.

XRP Army’s Legal Champion Is Back

According to the filing, would-be purchasers were told the SPVs “held the same equity that insiders owned,” yet Linqto neither transferred the stock nor disclosed the hefty mark-ups baked into the purchase price—conduct the plaintiffs say violates Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and FINRA Rule 2040. Linqto’s own bankruptcy papers, lodged a day earlier in the Southern District of Texas, concede “historical failures to follow US laws governing the sale and marketing of private-company interests.”

Lead counsel John E. Deaton—best known for representing XRP holders in SEC v. Ripple—contends that Sarris “damaged the mission of democratising access to Silicon Valley” and misled ordinary investors: “People believed they were buying shares of Ripple, shares of SpaceX, but that’s not what they were buying.”

Because Sarris is sued in his personal capacity, Deaton argues the litigation is not stayed by Linqto’s Chapter 11 petition of 8 July 2025. The company, now led by chief executive Dan Siciliano, has secured up to $60 million in debtor-in-possession financing and says court oversight is “the only way forward” to emerge as “a profitable, law-abiding organisation” while it cooperates with SEC and FINRA investigations.

Investor outreach has proved challenging. Deaton scheduled an X Spaces session for 7:30 p.m. EST on 9 July, but abandoned the effort after repeated crashes, posting instead: “The spaces keeps crashing. We will set up a conference call early next week via phone line. I won’t do a Zoom LINK again because it got bombed last time.” He also reassured international users: “Anything I do includes ALL Linqto customers, regardless of where you live.”

Meanwhile, restructuring jockeying has begun. Shareholder Sapien Group says it has marshalled a majority bloc of equity and may seek to dismiss the Chapter 11 case, while Deaton has signalled plans to engage the creditors’ committee—a MOVE endorsed by forensic accountant Rob Loh, who wrote that the panel “will have real power in the bankruptcy process.” Deaton confirmed: “Rob is correct. We will have a real say in what happens in the bankruptcy.”

Regulatory pressure is mounting on multiple fronts: Linqto disclosed parallel probes by the SEC and FINRA, and former chief revenue officer Gene Zawrotny is pursuing a wrongful-termination claim in California state court, alleging retaliation for flagging compliance failures. Deaton is now also turning up the pressure on behalf of the XRP community—particularly those who believed they were purchasing legitimate pre-IPO shares of Ripple.

At press time, XRP traded at $2.42.