Attorney John Deaton: “SEC may sue Twitter for accepting payments in DOGE”

A lawyer defending the interests of XRP owners suggested that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) could sue billionaire Elon Musk for integrating DOGE cryptocurrency payments on Twitter.

John Deaton tweeted that the regulator could classify the meme cryptocurrency as an unregistered security. Yes, the lawyer noted, his assumption may seem ridiculous, but with today’s leadership of the SEC, this may well become a reality.

Deaton’s comments come after media reports that Elon Musk plans to boost Twitter revenue with crypto payments. The company has already started developing software and applying to regulators for licenses. These publications have led to speculation that the DOGE meme coin, which Musk backs, will be integrated into the payment system. Against the backdrop of rumors, the DOGE rate rose to $0.098.

With his tweet, Deaton wanted to emphasize that the agency is taking enforcement action against cryptocurrency companies by filing lawsuits against them. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler is confident that there is no need to create new rules for the emerging digital asset market, which, in his opinion, should be regulated like traditional finance (except for bitcoin).

In his claims to the SEC, John Deaton often mentions the proceedings with Ripple, in which he previously acted as an independent expert. According to Deaton, the SEC can call anything it wants an investment contract. Following the logic of the department, the lawyer argues, it considers even orange trees to be securities in the 1946 court case that laid the foundation for the Howey test. Now this test is used to determine whether an asset is a security.

This month, the SEC filed a lawsuit against the Gemini marketplace and lending service Genesis, accusing them of offering unregistered securities through the Gemini Earn program. This caused surprise in the crypto community, as the program was regulated by the state of New York, and the SEC knew about the product for over a year and did nothing.;