The legal battle between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) continues, but the blockchain company claimed a major win against the financial regulator.
One of the Ripple community lawyers revealed on Tuesday that presiding Judge Sarah Netburn denied a request by the SEC for reconsidering shielding documents under privilege that are related to a June 2018 speech made by William Hinman, who was then a Director at the SEC.
Hinman, at that time, admitted that Bitcoin and Ethereum cannot be categorized as securities.
Earlier, the SEC suggested that the comments were Hinman’s personal views and did not project the agency’s official views. The US federal regulator did not even object to those documents falling outside deliberative process privilege (DPP) protection, which exempted them from being disclosed by the government.
However, the regulator subsequently argued in court that Hinman’s speech showed the agency’s crypto policies, not his personal views, and should be shielded.
“The SEC seeks to have it both ways, but the Speech was either intended to reflect agency policy or it was not. Having insisted that it reflected Hinman’s personal views, the SEC cannot now reject its own position,” the Judge said.
James Filan, a community lawyer of Ripple, tweeted that “this is a big win for Ripple.”
A Major Legal Battle
The SEC moved to court against Ripple in December 2020, alleging that the XRP token is securities and the blockchain company illegally raised $1.8 billion by selling the token.
It turned out to be one of the biggest battles between a crypto company and the regulator. Even after a year of several court hearings and filing of motions, it is hard to conclude which party has the upper hand in the case.
But the judgment, if a settlement is not reached between Ripple and the SEC, will surely clear some water around the regulations of altcoins in the United States.
