In a series of tweets that caught the attention of the crypto community, John E Deaton, a lawyer known for his stance on XRP, hinted that there was fatal information about ETH Gate that could soon be revealed. His comments follow a tweet from Steven Nerayoff, an early advisor to the Ethereum network who dismissed criminal extortion charges against him as recently as May this year.
Deaton’s statement This was in response to Nelayov’s attorney, Michael Scotto, who tweeted: “My client Steven Nelayov fought the fight of a lifetime and… Victory has been won. Steve has been advised to follow due process and is fully committed to making all of his facts public at a time and in the interest of justice and the people. #Stay tuned.”
Deaton responded, “I’ve always said that one day we’ll get the full truth. Today is another day closer.” He also speculated that Nelayov intended to reveal what he knew, suggesting that Nelayov may have been too eager to tell. Act hastily upon the truth.
ETHGate cited a theory that suggests Ethereum receives preferential treatment from U.S. regulators, while other digital assets such as XRP face regulatory scrutiny. It is worth noting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against XRP parent company Ripple Labs in December 2020, accusing it of “raising $1.3 billion through unregistered ongoing digital asset securities offerings.”
The XRP army is full of hope: Will ETH Gate finally be exposed?
In a previous tweet, Deaton reiterated allegations he had previously discussed in an article published on Crypto LawUS. He claimed that Ethereum was favored by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) due to a “massive conflict of interest” involving William Hinman, the former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance.
This is closely related to Nelayov’s own explosives tweets, questioning the validity of the regulatory pass given to Ethereum. Nerayoff said, “This is ‘institution-created law’ (whatever that means), how on earth does Ethereum meet the fairy dust requirements of this magical agency?” He further questioned various officials on the possible role of helping Ethereum gain regulation. The role played by Freedom Pass.
Deaton said Steven Nelayov could be a key source of inside information. This was confirmed by Nelayov himself, who simply said: “I have the map,” in response to Deaton’s speculative tweet about “knowing where all the bodies are buried.”
Nelayov was embroiled in a three-and-a-half-year legal battle, which he won in May after a New York judge dismissed racketeering charges against him. The dismissal came after federal prosecutors admitted they were “unable to prove the allegations in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Nelayov’s firing raised eyebrows because it is unusual for prosecutors to drop a case after obtaining an indictment. Notably, Nelayov’s lawyers claim that he was the victim of an elaborate scheme to obtain evidence against prominent figures in the crypto industry. The dismissal of the case may mean that Nelayov is guilty of US authorities, possibly related to the Ethereum free pass.
The tweets also caught the attention of Charles Hoskinson, one of the founders of Ethereum and founder of Cardano, who believed that personal relationships could influence regulatory decisions but ruled out the idea of Ethereum actively bribing the SEC.
“Definitely personal relationships and things behind the scenes may have played a role. This happens every day to BlackRock, Chase, Goldman Sachs, Big Pharma, telecoms, the defense industry and many others. I don’t believe Ethereum bribes U.S. securities The Exchange Commission came after Ripple. That’s the conspiracy part, it makes no sense to me. Ripple is not even in the smart contract space,” Hoskinson responded to Deaton.
At press time, XRP was trading at $0.4925.
Featured image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com
