Ripple’s SEC battle is still raging, with Ripple arguing that Ethereum is not a security, citing a former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance’s confirmation from 2018.
Bill Hinman, the former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance, stated in a lecture in 2018 that he does not consider Ethereum to be a security. The SEC maintained that Hinman’s statement was his own viewpoint, but Ripple found an email sequence between a third party and the SEC that appeared to show that the perspective was shared by the SEC as well as Hinman.
This has created severe doubts about Mr. Hinman’s honesty in court. The judge has ordered the SEC to produce two papers pertaining to the SEC’s meetings with law firms, the email communications, as well as an explanation of its privilege assertions for each of those items by October 15.
Ripple’s lawyers are pressuring the SEC to take one of two stands: either Hinman’s speech was his personal view, implying that no Deliberate Process Privilege (DPP) case can be made, or Hinman’s opinion was policy, allowing the DPP case to be made but also allowing the opinion to serve as evidence against the SEC.
Ripple’s attorneys also confronted the SEC for failing to analyse almost 30,000 Requests For Admission. The SEC reacted by claiming that the demands were excessive and that it had answered 254 requests for information spending a collective 100 hours. RFAs help establish a quick agreement between opposing parties in a litigation, and responses are deemed to be provided under oath and can be used against the responding party.
The price of XRP has risen by 9% in less than 24 hours as a result of the latest turn in Ripple’s legal battle.
Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse insists that XRP is not a security, claiming that it should be treated as a digital currency similar to bitcoin and Ethereum.