Brad Garlinghouse hinted that the eagerly awaited Hinman documents, which detail internal deliberations by Securities and Exchange Commission staff, could tip the court battle in Ripple’s favor.
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With just one day until the Hinman documents are due to be unsealed, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse suggests the documents will be “well worth the wait.”
In a June 12 Twitter reply to a question raised by crypto YouTuber Jungle Inc, Garlinghouse said that while he did not want to “overstep,” both he and Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty see the documents as being worth the 18-month fight to get them unsealed.
Wish I could go in depth now, but we’ve waited this long (18+ months), I don’t want to overstep… suffice it to say @s_alderoty and I believe they were well worth the wait.
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) June 12, 2023
The Hinman documents refer to internal SEC messages concerning a 2018 speech given by former Securities and Exchange Director William Hinman. In the speech, Hinman said that while cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) may start off as securities, it’s possible for them to become something more akin to a commodity once they become sufficiently decentralized.
Many Ripple advocates believe that the imminent unsealing of the documents will prove instrumental in providing further insight into the legal status of Ripple’s native XRP (XRP) token.
The unsealing of the documents comes amid an extremely turbulent time for the crypto industry. June 13 will also see the federal court will hear the SEC’s motion to freeze the assets of Binance.US, following on from a spate of legal action against the exchange.
The next 36 hrs will be critical for crypto.
Today 5 pm: @Binance files its opposition to SEC’s motion for order freezing assets of @BinanceUS
Tomorrow 2 pm: Hearing on SEC’s motion to freeze assets
Tomorrow (sometime): Release of summary judgment exhibits (including Hinman…
— MetaLawMan (@MetaLawMan) June 12, 2023
The SEC first took legal action against Ripple in December 2020, alleging that the sale of its native XRP (XRP) token represented an unregistered securities offering. Since then, Ripple has denied XRP is a security, arguing it does not satisfy the Howey test.
Related: Ripple case: Pro-XRP lawyer tips outright SEC victory at ‘less than 3%’
While many top Ripple executives have long been predicting an imminent end to the rollercoaster lawsuit from the SEC, pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton recently claimed that presiding Judge Analisa Torres would almost certainly come to a final decision before Sept. 30 of this year.
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