XRP case: Ripple reacts to Hinman speech documents

As part of the trial opponent Ripple to the SECthe documents related to speech by a former member of the regulatory body on the status of cryptocurrencies have been made public.

Former executive of the U.S. Security of Exchange Commission, William Hinman clarified the qualification of Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2018 during an official speech.

Ripple, en trial since 2020 against SEC – which believes that its token XRP is a financial security and therefore subject to its rules – has wanted to exploit the emails of the agent in order to strengthen his defense.

During his speech, the former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance had stated that BTC and ETH were not titles. Ripple considered that documents or deliberations on which this decision was based could be of benefit to him.

And the documents in question now published as part of the trial. Stuart AlderotyRipple’s General Counsel, is back on the subject in a long Twitter thread.

“We can now all see that Hinman ignored several warnings that his speech contained a unsubstantiated analysiswas divorced from the factors Howeywould expose regulatory loopholes and create not only confusion, but more confusion in the market,” he trumpeted on Tuesday, recalling Hinman’s 2018 statement that a token is not a security once it becomes “ sufficiently decentralized “and that he had also invented factors to determine whether an asset was “sufficiently decentralized”.

Alderoty went on to point out that Hinman had ignored the position of the SEC’s Director of Trading and Markets.

“Because the list of factors is so long – and seems to include things that go beyond Howey’s typical analysis – we are concerned that it could lead to a greater confusion about what a title is,” he said at the time.

The legal head of the blockchain fintech also spoke about Hinman’s position on Ethereum.

“On June 4, Hinman wrote that he saw no ‘need to regulate.’ ETH as security” and that he would call Buterin later in the week to confirm “our understanding”. On June 12, OGC “expressed reservations about including a statement directly about ether in the speech… as it would be difficult for the agency to take a different position on ETH in the future.” ETH remained a cited example,” he wrote.

“An investigation must be conducted to understand what or who influenced Hinman, why conflicts, or at least the appearance of conflicts, were ignored, and why the SEC touted the speech knowing it would create greater confusion,” Alderoty concluded.

For its part Ripple’s boss also returned to the subject.

It is absolutely unconscionable that a regulator – when he was criticized for so many things about what he was about to say / how he compiled this bogus ‘test’ in the first place – decided to go ahead and plunge an entire industry into chaos.” tweeted Brad Garlinghouse.

The qualification of digital assets in the United States is in the spotlight today as the country’s two largest exchanges, Binance and Coinbasewere recently sued by the SEC for violating securities law by offering tokens considered to be securities.

In its complaints, the regulator mentions some twenty tokens but not XRP. Ripple’s native token has superformed the rest of the market over the past 30 days. Its price has risen by over 25%.

A number of investors are expecting a decision in favor of Ripple. However, there is no certainty at present that the judge will rule in favor of the XRP issuer. The decision will be decisive for the future of the crypto industry as a whole, according to Garlinghouse.

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