SEC v Ripple: No smoking gun in Hinman docs
Ripple execs are hyping up the U.S. SEC communications relating to a speech given by Bill Hinman in 2018, in which he said that he did not believe BTC or ETH were securities.
Ripple execs are hyping up the U.S. SEC communications relating to a speech given by Bill Hinman in 2018, in which he said that he did not believe BTC or ETH were securities.
Apart from denying the motion to seal Hinman's speech, a court judge also granted the plea to redact information concerning the identity of witnesses and Ripple's financial data.
SEC argued that Hinman’s speech was a personal errand while also claiming he received legal counsel from SEC lawyers, and Judge Netburn isn’t impressed.
Based on the legal test for determining whether something is a security or not (Howey), the SEC has a case. However, in filing its defense, Ripple Labs made an excellent point worthy of discussion.
Bill Hinman made headlines after proposing SEC should consider the level of decentralization of a digital currency before classifying it a security.