William Hinman Says Ripple Is a Security, Declared BTC and Ether Were Not Securities
William Hinman Claims Ripple Is a Security Instead of BTC and Ether
As revealed, Ripple made every possible effort to depose the former SEC Director of Corporate Finance, Willam Hinman, and in response to it, the SEC fought even harder to quash the overthrow of the security uptake.
It even claimed that Hinman was speaking in a personal capacity when he left out BTC and Ether from being labeled as securities.
Well, despite all the efforts made by the SEC, the deposition took place last month, and now for the very first time, some part of the deposition is available to the public.
When inquired about the instances when his guidance was sought as to the application of federal securities laws to digital assets, he said:
“Frankly, the one I recall the most clearly is probably the one when XRP came in with a person who had my position before me, as well as enforcement counsel. They were interested in is there a way to restructure what we’re doing to bring it within compliance with the securities laws, and the first thing I said to them as you’re continuing to offer XRP without any kind of restrictions that would apply as a securities offering.
If you want to come into compliance you have to stop doing that, and they understood that.”
A Big Blow to Ripple
This response from William Hinman might be considered as a big blow to Ripple as the company has been entreating a lack of fair notice as its main defense in the lawsuit by the SEC.
In accordance with the data released by the SEC, it said:
“The privilege logs provide significant detail regarding which SEC employees communicated with other SEC employees, on which specific topics, and at which specific times. This information about particular government employees and their communications is sensitive and could potentially be exploited for improper purposes.”
