John Deaton

John became interested in “cryptocurrencies,” like Bitcoin in late 2016. Remembering his youth, and his mother often relying on predatory inner-city “check cashing” operations to make sure he and his siblings had something to eat, he was particularly drawn to cryptocurrency’s ability to help the underprivileged and unbanked. In 2020 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit that would ban the third largest cryptocurrency, XRP, wiping out both large and small investors who in some cases had staked their entire life savings by investing in XRP. John, a small-firm asbestos lawyer without any securities experience, developed a novel legal theory and filed a pro bono amicus brief on behalf of these individuals – eventually ending up with more than 75,000 individual token holders around the world. Ultimately, John and the token holders were successful – again, he had defied the odds and the underdog(s) survived. Because of his efforts in the case, John became amicus counsel in other SEC enforcement actions and was awarded the Defender of Freedom Award.