The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bought time to fight the order to turn over certain documents in the Ripple case, potentially delaying the outcome of the case. Here are the details.
As we reported earlier, William Hinman, former director of the SEC, has become one of the focal points of the case with his statements in the past, especially in Ripple’s defense. Hinman stated years ago that Ethereum is not a security. This, in turn, has become a major point of contention in the Ripple case.
Recently, the court decided that the internal speeches and draft texts of Hinman’s speech on ETH in 2018 be delivered to the Ripple company. But then the SEC filed a new appeal, and federal judge Sarah Netburn agreed, giving the SEC time to prepare a defense by February 17. Ripple’s legal team will have until February 25 to respond to this defense.
The SEC claims that XRP was an unregistered security when it was launched and remains a security to this day. However, Hinman does not consider all crypto assets to be securities. In his 2018 speech, he openly said that he does not consider Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH) to be securities due to the decentralized nature of their networks.
Lawyer and crypto law expert Jeremy Hogan mentioned in a new tweet In the decision, there was no way the SEC allowed an extension. He said there was no “beacon of hope”.
“Now the discovery won’t be concluded until March at the earliest.”
Finally, it is worth noting that the deadline set for the “Discovery Process” is February 28. After this date, the case is expected to accelerate.