Thread by @JohnEDeaton1

#XRPHolders 🆚 @SECGov 🆚 @Ripple

THESE ARE THE FACTS AND THEY ARE NOT IN DISPUTE:

Mar. 23, 2017: Clayton agrees to recuse himself from voting on any matter related to his law firm’s (Sullivan & Cromwell) clients;

Nov. 30, 2017: Lubin & Consensys announce the Brooklyn Project

Dec. 13, 2017: Hinman has a meeting w/ Lubin & Consensys and lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell (Clayton’s law firm);

Dec. 14, 2017:
Matt Corva of Consensys (along w/ lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell) state that they are building an alliance with the SEC;

Jan. 25, 2018: Clayton meets with Andreesen & Horowitz and instructs them to put together a group and write up a memo. Perkins Coie, a member of the EEA, leads this group of Ether investors;

Mar. 12, 2018: @bgarlinghouse speaks publicly about Ripple using #XRP to replace SWIFT;

Mar. 26, 2018: Perkins Coie sends Hinman the Memo and Safe Harbor Proposal - the only Crypto asset mentioned in the Safe Harbor is #Ether;

Mar. 28, 2018:
#Ether investors meet secretly with Hinman asking for a regulatory free pass from the SEC;

Apr. 19, 2018:
The meeting is leaked and @nathanielpopper reports Ether investors seek a non-security designation from the SEC;

Apr. 23, 2018: @GaryGensler comments that @Ripple, #ETH & crypto need more regulatory clarity;

Apr. 23, 2018:
SEC meets AGAIN with Lubin & Consensys

May 10, 2018:
On @LizClaman’s show @CGasparino reports the Brooklyn Project & Consensys along with @ethereumJoseph are working closely with regulators to create a self-regulatory body being “sanctioned by the SEC”;

The Brooklyn Project attempts to correct Gasparino’s report;

Gasparino rebukes this attempt and tweets out he knows what he was told by Andrew Keys about SEC

May 12, 2018: Lubin says he is “making great strides with regulators”

May 24, 2018: Lubin claims he can issue tokens in ways detailed in Hinman’s speech - which hasn’t yet happened;

June 5, 2018:
@novogratz (close friends w/ Lubin) says he will bet “dimes to donuts” the SEC will declare present day Ether not a security (the speech is 9 days away);

Novogratz also predicts the SEC will soon pick a token and go after it;

The speech was attached to 63 emails;

June 8, 2018:
Consensys meets with SEC AGAIN and Lubin says the market needs the SEC to scare certain projects away;

June 13, 2018:
A memo analyzing whether XRP is a security is passed among SEC staff (SEC refuses to turn it over b/c its likely inconclusive XRP is a security);

June 14, 2018:
Hinman speech which declares “putting aside the fundraising” of Ethereum’s ICO, ether is not a security.

After Hinman, Lubin appears on the same stage claiming he “wasn’t able to read through Bill’s entire speech” and asks if Hinman “spoke about #XRP” at all;

The moderator responds that XRP wasn’t mentioned and Lubin replies: “That’s interesting.”

June 26, 2018: @bgarlinghouse notes Coinbase announced it was listing #ETC 2 days before the speech;

June 26, 2018:
Lubin tells @TheDomino he believes Ripple/XRP is “massively overvalued”;

July 6, 2018:
Lubin says “I drove lots of the legal work. We got a piece of paper in our pocket before we actually launched the token sale.” (Ether held an ICO in 2014);

Aug. 19, 2018:
Lubin praises the SEC and claims it has given “pretty high quality clarity” regarding crypto;

Lubin adds that Clayton “indicated they wouldn’t be grandfathering anybody in” and that “the securities law issues are pretty close to resolved”; (of course contrast Lubin’s claims with @HesterPeirce criticism regarding the lack of clarity back in 2018 that still exists today);

Sep. 17, 2018:
Lubin warns of “a reckoning coming” from the SEC for “certain projects”;

Sep. 26, 2018:
Gary Gensler describes #XRP as a currency in the Banking Sector;

Oct. 15, 2018:
Lubin says he escaped ETH being an unregistered security by creating a reality through words;

Oct. 28, 2018:
Nancy Wojtas, who participated in the secret meeting in March, disagrees with Hinman that Ether is sufficiently decentralized to not be a security;

Wendy Moore of Perkins Coie adds: “Then why isn’t Ripple?”
(#XRPLedger is arguably more decentralized than Ether);

Jan. 19, 2019:
Lubin says “we are big friends and fans” of the SEC. He says SEC has “introduced a new construct called decentralization” into their thinking and BTC and Ether aren’t securities and he states that “they have not said the same about other tokens like XRP”;

Lubin claims to know the SEC is not going to find any tokens other than bitcoin and ether to be decentralized, dropping Hinman’s name as his source of information;

January 2019: @coinbase meets with SEC and informs them that they have run #XRP through their securities framework;

Coinbase and it’s lawyers conclude #XRP is not a security and inform the SEC it plans to list #XRP but wants to make sure its not running afoul of U.S. securities laws;

The SEC DOES NOT state it believes #XRP to be a security and on Feb. 28, 2019 Coinbase lists #XRP for trading;

June 19, 2019: Ripple buys 9% stake in @MoneyGram with the SEC’s full knowledge that Ripple will transfer #XRP to MoneyGram for cross border payments and that MoneyGram would likely sell that #XRP in the secondary market to #XRPHolders with no connection to Ripple;

Sep. 12, 2019:
Nancy Wotjas admits “most of” Hinman’s speech was lifted from the investors’ proposal and “meetings that we had” (led by Andreessen & Perkins Coie);

Sep. 15, 2019:
Lubin admits that at Ether’s launch “we needed to put out something that we knew was not scalable;

Aug. 25-28, 2020:
ConsenSys acquires Quorum and Lubin says his Quorum acquisition’s offering is an “interbank information network” that’s “similar to what SWIFT does” and adds that ConsenSys supports JP Morgan’s own stablecoin, JPM Coin. (A direct competitor to Ripple and XRP);

Oct. 6, 2020:
Lubin admits he has a “regulatory advantage” & claims “Bitcoin and Ether arrived before regulators were paying attention” and “we were fortunate enough to frame our token as a utility token.” He says all altcoins are spectacularly disadvantaged when compared to #ETH

Oct. 2020:
One River bets $1 billion on Bitcoin and Ether;

Nov. 20, 2020:
@VitalikButerin states “we” are “getting rid of” the network’s proof of work mechanism to replace it with one “entirely based on proof of stake” and admits “It’s still a leap that people have to take.”;

Dec. 22, 2020:
Walking out the SEC’s🚪 Clayton votes for and directs the case against Ripple - his client’s competitor - claiming all XRP sales the last 7 1/2 years constitute investment contracts with Ripple including all secondary market sales with no connection to Ripple;

Clayton goes to 1River to push Bitcoin & Ether;

At the SEC Hinman collected $15m from his law firm - a Board member of EEA - and is now a partner at Andreesen’s $2.2B crypto fund (the same investors who helped write the speech).

THESE ARE THE FACTS AND THEY ARE NOT IN DISPUTE.

After reading the incontrovertible facts, consider that former Commissioner Grundfest, who acted as a liaison between the SEC and Ether investors, wrote a letter pleading not to file the case b/c of the damage to innocent holders and b/c it would destroy the SEC’s reputation.
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