• The highly-discussed Hinman documents, vital in the SEC vs Ripple case, will be released on June 13.
• These contain former SEC official William Hinman’s emails linked to drafts of his June 2018 cryptocurrency speech.
• The outcome of the ongoing case will have a direct impact on the XRP price and the entire crypto industry.
Hinman Documents to Be Released
The much-talked-about Hinman documents, vital in the legal battle between the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple, will be released today, June 13. These contain former SEC official William Hinman’s emails linked to drafts of his June 2018 cryptocurrency speech.
Impact on Crypto Industry
The crypto community, especially XRP investors and fans, is excited about the release. Some speculate that the contents of the files could give a major boost to Ripple’s case, tipping the scale in its favor. The outcome of the ongoing case will also have a direct impact on the XRP price, not to mention on the entire crypto industry. The speculation of the release of the Hinman Documents has already sent the altcoin on a much-needed rally.
Reason for Demand
In December 2020, the SEC sued Ripple Labs, alleging that it was behind an unregistered security —XRP token— which raised over $1.3 billion in its sales process. However, Ripple had alleged that there was bias from SEC since it did not extend same hostility towards cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). To bring clarity to this allegation by Ripple labs lawyers demanded for acceptance of evidence made up of internal communications along with William Hineman’s speech given at Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018.
Hineman’s Speech
At this summit Hineman stated that he does not believe Ethereum was a security but rather based off his understanding offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions,” Thus indicating that if same logic can be applied then XRP should also NOT be considered as security either.
SEC Motion
However In December 2022 SEC filed motion looking to suppress Ripple’s request citing no relevance as well as public right to know which would include confidential information related to company operations which would hurt their competitive edge otherwise given away for free if released publicly thus concluding their motion with “Ripple fails to meet its burden for discovery”.