A motion by the securities regulator of the US that would seal records regarding the regulator’s internal deliberations that took place after William Hinman, its former director, gave a speech, has been rejected. Ripple, along with the community of cryptocurrency, sees the move largely as a victory over the regulator.
How Significant Is The Victory For Ripple?
In a speech given on June 2018, the former division director of corporation finance of the SEC said that Ethereum blockchain’s native token Ether cannot be considered a security. On December 22, 2022, a motion was filed by the SEC looking to seal all expert reports, internal emails, as well as text messages that succeeded this speech by Hinman.
The SEC argued that the mission it was on was more important than the right of the public to see those documents that, they deem, as irrelevant to the summary of the judge’s decision given in the court. This was their primary argument amongst others.
However, Analisa Torres, the judge of the United States District Court, gave the ruling for the documents to be classified as “judicial documents”. As such, it is strongly presumed that they would be available to be accessed by the public.
The court had further rejected other SEC motions that called for not allowing Ripple references such as the link between the revenues of Ripple and the sale of XRP. For Ripple, the speech has long been considered a shred of important evidence for the continuing legal battle it is involved with against the SEC. In the lawsuit against Ripple, the SEC claims that Ripple’s sale of its XRP token was in violation of securities laws. The day’s news resulted in a spike in XRP price, ending at an increase of about 2.6%.
