Ripple Finally Gets Its Hands on Hinman Speech, Ripple CEO Slams SEC’s “Shamefulness”

Ripple’s general counsel Stuart Alderoty made an announcement that the San Francisco-based blockchain startup has finally got its hands to Hinman speech. This speech by former SEC chairman talks about how ETH is not a security, an evidence that Ripple can use against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

It took Ripple nearly six court orders over 18 months to get access to these documents. This happens as the court rejected the SEC’s arguments about deliberative process privilege (DPP) and attorney-client privilege.

Having finally received access to the Hinman speech, Alderoty said that it “was well worth the fight”. The Ripple counsel further added that the company “feels even better” presenting their legal arguments in the case. “It was well worth the fight to get them,. I’ve always felt good about our legal arguments, and I feel even better now. I always felt bad about the SEC’s tactics, and I feel even worse about them now,” said the Ripple counsel.

These documents are basically internal SEC emails and drafts of the speech by former SEC Chairman William Hinman delivered at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018. Although Ripple got access to these documents, they would be still sealed from the public at the SEC’s insistence.

Hinman’s correspondence is pivotal to Ripple in its ongoing battle with the U.S. SEC. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple and its executives back in December 2020 accusing the blockchain firm of conducting an illegal sale of XRPs as unregistered securities.

However, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse took this opportunity to slam the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Ripple CEO asked his Twitter followers not to believe in the SEC’s claims of maintaining “transparency”.

“The SEC wants you to think that it cares about disclosure, transparency and clarity. Don’t believe them. When the truth eventually comes out, the shamefulness of their behavior here will shock you,” he said. 

This could prove to be a turning point for Ripple to win its case against the U.S. SEC. Ripple is already having an edge currently and many market experts believe that the case could come to its conclusion by the year-end.

Ripple’s native cryptocurrency XRP has also show some surge in recent weeks. The new could help XRP bulls take charge once again. As of press time, XRP is trading at $0.43 with a market cap of $22 billion.