Ripple CEO Says People Will Be Stunned at the SEC’s Behavior When Hinman’s Emails “Come to Light”

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Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has made fresh comments about the draft of William Hinman’s June 2018 speech. 

Recall that since the SEC surrendered the drafts of Hinman’s speech to Ripple in October, the document has remained sealed, with XRP community members eager to know the content of the emails. 

In a video shared by Crypto Law on Twitter, the outspoken Ripple CEO said that when Hinman’s document is finally released, people will marvel at how the SEC could still charge Ripple despite discussions within the agency. 

“When [the document] comes to light, I think you would see more kind of like how is it possible the SEC decided to bring a case against Ripple given what they were saying within their own walls,” Garlinghouse was quoted as saying. 

The broad-reaching and real legal significance to all of crypto of the Hinman Emails re: #ETH, explained 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/PbQBPPkTr3

— CryptoLaw (@CryptoLawUS) January 18, 2023

Garlinghouse also noted that he met with SEC’s officials on three occasions, adding that not once did the agency disclose that “XRP is a security.” 

Hinman’s 2018 Speech 

It bears mentioning that during the June 2018 speech, Hinman, who was the director of the SEC’s Corporation of Finance, clarified that Bitcoin and Ethereum are non-securities. According to Hinman, both cryptocurrencies are sufficiently decentralized and thus should not be subject to U.S. securities laws. 

With the SEC charging Ripple in December 2020, the Silicon Valley blockchain company asked the regulator to surrender Hinman’s document. However, the SEC claimed the documents contained its officials’ deliberations. They added that the documents are protected by attorney-client privilege and cannot be surrendered to Ripple. 

Not relenting, Ripple pushed further with its request and finally got a breakthrough in October after six court orders. Ripple’s general counsel Stuart Alderoty took to Twitter to break the news to XRP community members, saying: 

Over 18 months and 6 court orders later, we finally have the Hinman docs (internal SEC emails and drafts of his infamous 2018 speech). While they remain confidential for now (at the SEC’s insistence), I can say that it was well worth the fight to get them.

— Stuart Alderoty (@s_alderoty) October 20, 2022

It is worth noting that Garlinghouse blasted the SEC a day after it surrendered Hinman’s documents. Per Garlinghouse, the SEC does not care about transparency. He added that people would be shocked at the “shamefulness” of the SEC’s behavior when “the truth” is revealed. 

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