As per a recent decision by the US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn, the SEC will disclose emails related to a speech, in which an ex-official William Hinman stated that Eth isn't a security in 2018.
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Then, he said that the cryptocurrency is decentralized enough.This speech plays a major role in the case, which started in Dec. 2020, with the SEC suing Ripple over the sales of XRP, saying it's a security. The ruling allows Ripple to access a large number of papers, including notes by the SEC's director Valerie Szczepanik.
The agency had argued that the docs were subject to privilege which state agencies have in particular situations.
According to the SEC, it must not share those documents with its opponent. The judge allowed access to some papers, but for some cases, it was rejected. As for the emails on Hinman's speech, the judge said that the privilege didn't apply as the speech that reflected his own opinion and not that of the agency.
It was mentioned in the release that Hinman's speech appears to be merely peripheral to actual policy formation, and not a significant link in the SEC’s deliberative process connected with Ethereum.
The judge concluded that messages on the speech or drafts aren't pre-decisional nor deliberative agency docs entitled to protection.
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Notes that were formed before the agency’s final decision are called predecisional, and by deliberative, it’s understood the docs that were to help the SEC to decide its position.
Recently, in one of his recent interviews, the SEC chair Gary Gensler didn’t give a direct answer when he was asked whether he finds Ether as secure or not. Despite the ongoing legal case, last year was Ripple’s strongest year, as the company CEO Brad Garlinghouse revealed summing up 2021.
Ripple’s XRP is the 8th largest crypto with a market cap of over $36.1 billion. At the moment, XRP trades at around $0.8.