Novogratz Admits Shares in Ripple, Says He Never Met Hinman, XRP Community Reacts

XRP enthusiasts react as Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz says he is a day one Ripple investor and has never sold his share in the past ten years.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz disclosed that he had been an early investor in cryptocurrency behemoth Ripple Labs. Novogratz added that he has never sold his shares in the past ten years.

Debate Between Novogratz and XRP Enthusiast

Notably, Novogratz made this known in response to a recent allegation from a top XRP community member Mr. Huber (@Leerzeit).

For context, Mr. Huber alleged that William Hinman, former director of SEC’s Corporation Finance, gave “insider knowledge” about his regulations to some venture capitalists, including Novogratz and his son- Nate Hinman.

Mr. Huber attached a short video clip of Novogratz claiming that he had to bet “dimes to doughnuts” on the exact thing Hinman would say during his June 14, 2018, speech.

How do we know that Bill Hinman shared insider knowledge about his regulations with other Venture Capitalists? Because other Venture Capitalists went on national television and were betting dimes to donuts on the exact things he was about to say. pic.twitter.com/GgS1aowyrv

— Mr. Huber🔥🦅🔥 (@Leerzeit) June 21, 2023

Recall that Hinman declared Ethereum and Bitcoin as non-securities during the speech. Apparently, Novogratz purchased huge amounts of ETH before Hinman declared the coin as a non-security. 

Reacting to the allegations, Novogratz claimed he had never met Hinman before. Additionally, the American investor said he has not spoken nor corresponded with Hinman in the past.

To be clear I have never bet bill hinman, have never spoken to him or corresponded with him.

— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) June 21, 2023

Furthermore, Novogratz claimed the only person he has spoken to about SEC matters is Ripple CEO, Brad Garlinghouse. According to Novogratz, Garlinghouse was visiting the SEC regularly at the time.

“Have been a day one investor in Ripple Labs and have not sold any of my shares in the past ten years,” he added.

The only person I remember speaking to about SEC matters was Brad Garlinghouse who was visiting them pretty regularly. Have been a day one investor in Ripple Labs and have not sold any of my shares in the past ten years.

— Mike Novogratz (@novogratz) June 21, 2023

In response, Huber said he considers Novogratz’s claim to be an excuse. Per Huber, Ripple’s business model heavily relies on XRP, adding that the company will be a normal software company without the coin. 

Huber also asserted that Ripple would not have fought the SEC lawsuit if XRP was not involved. Notably, Huber said it makes no sense that Novogratz would invest in Ripple while thinking XRP is a scam. 

“Seems to me like “plausible deniability.” I’m pretty sure that if you could have bought 0.5% of the XRP supply for $500k as you did with Ethereum, things would look very different,” Huber added.

That has always seemed like an excuse to me. Ripple’s disruptive business model was always dependent on XRP, otherwise it’s just a normal software company. And otherwise they wouldn’t have fought this lawsuit. I just can’t imagine investing in Ripple and at the same time thinking…

— Mr. Huber🔥🦅🔥 (@Leerzeit) June 21, 2023

XRP Enthusiasts React 

As expected, the back-and-forth debate between Huber and Novogratz stirred reactions from XRP enthusiasts. Dizer Capital founder Yassin Mobark asked why Novogratz had been “disparaging” XRP and promoting ETH despite his stake in Ripple.

But you have been disparaging $XRP from day one and promoting $ETH. Why is that?

— Yassin Mobarak 🪝 (@Dizer_YM) June 21, 2023

Interestingly, other top XRP enthusiasts also reacted to the development.

Exactly. It’s like investing in a printing company who’s printers are superior to all other printers but they need a certain type of paper, but telling people that paper is explosive. No one would do that, You are clearly lying.

— Simon Lockley-Evans 🤑 (@EvansLockley) June 21, 2023

Nailed it! @novogratz is a VC Pump & Dump shill. Still have my doubts on the authenticity of his Luna tattoo. Would bet ‘dimes to donuts’ it’s erasable ink to maintain plausible deniability in dumping on retail. Pathetic AF.

— Matthew Bussard (@MattBussard99) June 21, 2023

Hinman’s Emails 

Meanwhile, XRP community members have been commenting on Hinman’s controversial speech since Ripple released Hinman’s emails. The email relates to internal deliberations at the SEC leading to the build-up of the speech.

According to Hinman’s emails, the former director ignored all warnings regarding the speech from top SEC officials, including the Head of Trading & Markets. These officials warned that the speech is divorced from Howey factors and would cause greater confusion in the market.

However, Hinman ignored the warnings and gave a controversial speech, declaring ETH as a non-security.