Ripple continues to be embroiled in a legal tussle with the SEC, and certain community members have claimed significant corruption on the agency’s side for targeting the blockchain firm. Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has cleared his stance on the matter and backed Ripple by saying that layer-1 protocols aren’t securities.
The XRP Army, however, isn’t happy with Hoskinson’s take on the debate surrounding corruption inside the SEC.
Fragment the Space
XRP proponents believe there is a conflict of interest involving William Hinman, former SEC Director of Corporation Finance. During his time at the agency, he reportedly attended meetings with several Ethereum officials after declaring that ETH is not a security. Hinman’s calender showed that he met with Ethereum-related entities four times between 2017 and 2018, far more frequently than any other crypto company.
It also revealed that Ripple and its legal team met with SEC representatives once in April of 2018, three times in 2019, and twice again in 2020. These developments supported the growing belief that the regulatory watchdog unfairly targeted the blockchain firm in its crackdown.
The Cardano founder, on the other hand, thinks otherwise. In a recent podcast with the Thinking Crypto founder Tony Edward, Hoskinson said the XRP community attempted to invent a “grand conspiracy” about a “blatant corruption” between the insiders at the SEC and Ethereum.
This did not sit well with the XRP Army, who subsequently called him out on social media. But Hoskinson believes this corruption debate would not help Ripple in winning the case and rather “fragment the space.” While responding to an attorney John Deaton, Hoskinson said,
“You’re a lawyer John and understand full well that the corruption discussion will have no impact on the current is XRP a security conversation. It’s a completely separate matter and should be treated as such. All it does is fragment the space and reduce the chance of winning.”
Hoskinson also said it is “OK to be angry about selective enforcement” while highlighting that “proper steps need to be taken.”
Ripple Vs. SEC
Ripple has been scoring small but notable wins against the SEC. In yet another tactical victory, District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled to release the documents written by Hinman. The SEC had previously objected to producing the same, citing irrelevance to the case, and also said the documents are protected by deliberative process privilege (DPP) and come under attorney-client privilege.
It remains to be seen if the Commission will actually hand over the documents to the court. According to general counsel to Ripple Stuart Alderoty, the agency flaunted the past six orders given by the court, a move that is seen as deliberately fostering uncertainty rather than providing clear guidance.
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