In a fresh development in the ongoing legal struggle between Ripple and the SEC, prominent attorneys have claimed that former SEC Director William Hinman was bribed to criticise XRP in favour of Ethereum (ETH).
Pro-XRP attorney John Deaton recently vented his dissatisfaction with the published papers on a live episode of the CryptoLaw podcast, after the publication of Hinman’s emails and draft of his June 2018 speech.
A lawyer and cryptocurrency specialist named Jeremy Hogan has chimed in on the debate, claiming that Bill Hinman, the former director of corporate finance at the SEC, was paid to deliver a lecture in which he stated that Ethereum was not a security.
Hogan claims that Ripple, another major cryptocurrency firm, has alleged that Hinman was paid by the Ethereum Foundation or someone associated with Ethereum to deliver the lecture and clear Ethereum.
Hogan alleges that Hinman titled his initial email “the Ether speech” before he had started writing the speech, based on emails between Hinman and his coworkers.
Based on this, Hogan concludes that Hinman’s lecture was intended to “right from the get-go” make the case that ETH is not a security.
Many in the cryptocurrency community saw Hinman’s 2018 statement as a watershed event when the SEC basically stated that Ethereum was not a security.
This was hailed as a major win for Ethereum and the cryptocurrency sector as a whole, since it laid out the SEC’s plans for regulating digital assets.
Hogan has claimed that the speech was intended as an open door for Ethereum and an assault on XRP, Ethereum’s main rival at the moment.
Hogan’s claims will undoubtedly lead to more discussion of the SEC’s ties with the cryptocurrency sector and the potential effect of outside influences on the agency’s actions. It should be noted that Hogan’s claims are speculative at best and unproven at worst.
At its current price of $0.4731, XRP has seen a little increase of 0.6% over the previous 24 hours. This follows a drop on Wednesday to $0.4564. Despite the current decline, XRP supporters are keeping the faith that a favourable conclusion will occur, which might lead to the cryptocurrency’s price breaking the $0.5833 record set in May.
The sixth biggest cryptocurrency, XRP, may now be in a better position to break the $1 barrier thanks to this.
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