It might finally be time to witness the last chapter of the SEC’s lawsuit against distributed ledger tech company Ripple.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has hinted that the highly contested Hinman materials could tip the longstanding procedural fight with the Commission in his company’s favour. Garlinghouse implied there are critical insights to be deduced from the incoming reveal of the so-called Hinman documents.
Beginning Of The End
Last month, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should release documents tied to former official William Hinman’s landmark 2018 ether speech to Ripple today, June 13. While Judge Torres will allow the SEC to redact the names and personal details of people mentioned in the emails and internal communications, she indicated that the SEC could not shield the so-called “Hinman Speech Documents,” explaining they were relevant to the judicial process.
While responding to a question put forth by cryptocurrency YouTuber Jungle Inc, Garlinghouse expressed that while he could not disclose too much, he and Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty see the speech docs as worth the 18-month fight to get them made public.
America’s securities watchdog has hounded Ripple in court for years, having accused the company in December 2020 of selling XRP as an unregistered security.
Ripple requested the documents in discovery, and the request was granted on Oct. 21, 2022. While the documents could be used as a part of Ripple’s defense by providing key context on the SEC’s stance regarding crypto security classification, the agency had tried to keep them hidden on multiple occasions, contending that they are irrelevant to the court’s summary judgment decision.
Lawsuit Conclusion Draws Closer
Access to these now-controversial materials would mean Ripple counsel can finally understand how Hinman came to the conclusion that ether was not a security, which could impact XRP’s own categorization as a security.
Most Ripple fans believe the imminent unsealing is super bullish for XRP as they price Ripple’s groundbreaking victory in the lawsuit. Should Ripple score an outright win against the SEC, it would mean the agency would have to acknowledge that XRP is in fact not a security.
While Ripple execs, including its CEO Garlinghouse, have long been forecasting a looming conclusion to the rollercoaster court battle, Deaton recently postulated that Judge Torres would most likely come to a final decision before September 30 this year due to the “six-month list” that district judges are required to file to Congress.
XRP grew 7.41% over the past 24 hours to reach $0.5577 at press time.
