Ripple, Crypto Industry Celebrate Small Wins Following These Events

Ripple and the entire crypto industry recently scored minor wins, as June 13 marked a monumental day for crypto. 

The day saw the public release of the much-publicized documents of former SEC official William Hinman, a hearing for Binance and a Financial Committee hearing on clarity for digital assets. On June 13, the SEC filed its response to the crypto exchange Coinbase’s request regarding rulemaking on digital assets.

William Mougayar, a crypto researcher, highlights six minor wins scored by the crypto industry in the wake of these events.

6 recent “small wins” from the crypto industry today:
1/ SEC wants 120 days to respond to @coinbase‘s rulemaking deadline. Shows the SEC is stalling and felt cornered.
2/ Judge ruled the SEC can’t shut down https://t.co/zlDbYMKM3S and asked both parties to compromise on a…

— William Mougayar (@wmougayar) June 14, 2023

First, the SEC wants 120 days to respond to Coinbase’s rulemaking deadline, which shows the regulator might be stalling and feels cornered. 

Second is the judge’s ruling on Binance.US, which rebuffed the SEC’s request for an asset freeze and asked both parties to negotiate a solution.

Third, the newly released Hinman emails revealed the SEC’s inconsistencies. Fourth, the financial committee hearing on clarity for digital assets went well. Mougayar quoted a line from the hearing that revealed an inconsistency on the part of SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
 
Fifth, Mougayar speaks of a 2018 video wherein SEC Chair Gary Gensler mentioned that BTC, ETH, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash are not securities.

Sixth is the recent minor win scored in the Custodia Bank Case. As reported, the CryptoLaw founder highlighted this case as one of the most important for crypto. Last week, Custodia Bank was given the go-ahead to pursue discovery, denying the Fed’s motion to dismiss.

Hinman documents exposed regulatory gaps: Ripple GC

Ripple General Counsel Stuart Alderoty took to Twitter to comment on the Hinman emails shortly after their public release. He notes that Hinman’s speech was divorced from the Howey factors and exposed regulatory gaps.

“We now can all see Hinman ignored multiple warnings that his speech contained made-up analysis with no basis in law, was divorced from the Howey factors, exposed regulatory gaps, and would create not just confusion but greater confusion in the market,” Alderoty wrote. 

William Hinman, then head of the SEC Corporate Finance Division, gave a speech in June 2018 declaring that a token is not a security once it becomes “sufficiently decentralized,” and he invented factors to consider when making a “sufficiently decentralized” determination.