Ripple vs. SEC: The Hinman documents revealed, Ripple CEO disappointed!

The Hinman documents, previously held by a former SEC executive, are at the core of the legal battle between the SEC and Ripple. According to Ripple, their disclosure is crucial to the outcome of the case. The disclosure has finally happened but falls short of Ripple’s expectations, leaving its executives disappointed.

Hinman documents, finally released but ambiguous

The disclosure of the Hinman documents has been eagerly awaited by Ripple for several months. It finally took place on Tuesday, June 13, amid ongoing legal proceedings.

These documents are related to a speech given by William Hinman, a former SEC executive. The said speech, delivered in 2018, discusses the nature of Bitcoin and Ether and has been the subject of internal commentary through emails.

The disclosure of these documents was expected to bring more clarity regarding the status of cryptocurrencies in general. At least, that’s what Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, had hoped for. However, that’s not really the case.

The meaning of the documents in question is rather vague and open to interpretation. In an email addressed to several departments within the SEC, Hinman stated that there was no need to “regulate Ether as it is currently offered as a security.”

This position is quite ambiguous, suggesting a certain reluctance on the part of the former executive to take a clear stance on the matter. Was there a concern about locking the regulator into an opinion that would be difficult to change later?

This possibility cannot be ruled out. A preliminary comment from the Trading and Markets Department sheds some light on this issue. According to the department, a definitive opinion from the SEC on whether Bitcoin is a security or not would be compromising. It would undermine the institution’s efforts to decide on the status of other cryptocurrencies.

Regarding Ether, the division believed that a declaration regarding its non-security nature should be discussed internally beforehand. All of this indicates a lack of consensus regarding the speech and its content.

Disappointed, Ripple calls for an investigation

Ripple quickly responded to the publication of these documents. Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, expressed his disappointment with this development on Twitter. He tweeted, “It’s absolutely unconscionable that a regulator – when presented with so much pushback on what he was about to say / how he compiled this fake “test” in the first place – decided to move forward anyway, and throw an entire industry into chaos.”

This sentiment is supported by Stuart Alderoty, the company’s General Counsel. He believes that the confusion is such that investigations are necessary to clearly understand what happened.

“An investigation must be conducted to understand what or who influenced Hinman, why conflicts (or, at the very least, appearances of conflicts) were ignored, and why the SEC touted the speech knowing that it would create “greater confusion”,” wrote Ripple’s General Counsel, Stuart Alderoty, in a Twitter thread. Will this development have an impact on the outcome of the Ripple trial?