Bitrabo Editorial
The XRP community has been diligently examining the recently released documents related to the legal battle between Ripple Labs and the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in which they are trying to understand why Bill Hinman, the former director of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance, granted Ethereum (ETH) the status of a non-security.
According to a report by NewsBTC, Hinman had a phone conversation with Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, before delivering his speech. Interestingly, he went against the recommendation of the SEC’s Office of General Counsel (OGC), which advised against including ETH in his speech.
New Discoveries by the XRP Community
Ashley Prosper, a member of the XRP community, thoroughly analyzed the Hinman documents and made several interesting findings about Ethereum and Bill Hinman. It is worth noting that Hinman rejoined the law firm Simpson Thacher, which is also part of the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance, in 2020.
According to Prosper, the documents indicate that Hinman faced significant pressure from Simpson Thatcher and ConsenSys to give the Ethereum Free Pass speech. Hinman intentionally avoided sharing the speech with any SEC commissioners except Jay Clayton, as he believed it would “slow down the process significantly.”
In addition, Hinman admitted that he extensively researched Ethereum before delivering the speech. However, he couldn’t provide information about the ownership of Ether (ETH) by Joe Lubin, Vitalik Buterin, or the Ethereum Foundation, or reveal who funded the Ethereum Foundation.
Prosper also speculates that the SEC is concerned about the mention of Joseph Lubin’s name, which is why they have redacted any reference to the name “Joe” in Hinman’s interview, even when it was about Joseph Grundfest. Prosper further highlights:
Jorge Tenreiro [SEC attorney] is doing everything he can during Hinman’s deposition to prevent any answers related to ETH, Ethereum, ConsenSys, or Lubin. Just compare how he handles the ETH questions to the Bitcoin ones.
#XRP #XRPCommunity
The SEC is so worried about revealing Joseph Lubins’ name that they redacted every reference to the name Joe in Hinmans deposition. Even when it belonged to Joesph Grundfest, whom they already identified by name. The fear is real… what does @ethereumJoseph… pic.twitter.com/j9vUnuHIOy— Ashley PROSPER (@AshleyPROSPER1) June 15, 2023
Prosper also discovered a passage in the documents that revealed Hinman had multiple meetings with ConsenSys and had face-to-face conversations with individuals associated with the company.
Renowned XRP community member Mr. Huber speculates, based on Prosper’s findings, that the urgency of the speech was to exempt Ethereum from the upcoming ethics provision that would require government employees to disclose their ETH holdings.
“Hinman’s speech not only prevented that from happening, but it also ensured that many politicians joined Ethereum afterward, which is why people are still trying to conceal it,” Mr. Huber stated.
Renowned XRP lawyer Jeremy Hogan has a similar theory. He suggests that Hinman was paid to give Ethereum a free pass. In an interview on CryptoLaw, Hogan speculates that an Ethereum member bribed Hinman to secure ETH’s status during the speech:
My speculation is that Ripple’s position here is that Bill Hinman was somehow paid, and he was paid by the Ethereum Foundation or someone associated with Ethereum to give the speech, giving Ethereum a free pass.
However, Hogan clarified that Ripple does not want to make accusations against others like the Ethereum Foundation due to insufficient evidence.
At the time of writing, XRP was being traded at $0.4735, marking a 6.3% decrease in the last 24 hours.
Featured image from VOI, chart from TradingView.com