After blockchain company Ripple scored a major win with Judge Analisa Torres denying the motion by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to seal the controversial Hinman documents, the court has approved the postponement of their publication date until June 13.
As it happens, the documents, which contain a speech by former SEC Division Director William Hinman delivered at a 2018 summit, where he reportedly stated that Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) were not securities, were initially rumored to be revealed on June 6, based on the timeline from an earlier court order.
Specifically, the Court Order from September 9, 2022, stated that both parties had exactly 21 days after the sealing ruling to file public, redacted versions of the related summary judgment documents. As defense attorney James K. Filan explained, June 6 was the expected date for these revelations, as the Judge ruled on the matter on May 16.
Hinman revelation: June 13
However, Filan shared a joint request by both Ripple and the securities regulator, in which they asked for a one-week extension – “until June 13, 2023, to file public, redacted versions of cross-motions for summary judgments and accompanying exhibits, which includes the Hinman materials,” as he said in a tweet on May 19.
As he later confirmed, the judge had approved this request, which the parties filed “in light of the voluminous nature of the materials and redactions,” as was the case with the previous expert testimony motions, dubbed the Daubert motions, “which were significantly less voluminous,” the letter states.
According to pro-Ripple lawyer John Deaton, the Hinman email release will contain, among other things, comments from Brett Redfearn, SEC’s Director of the Division of Trading and Markets, who told Hinmans that “this speech is going to lead to more market confusion,” as Deaton told Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett on May 21.
Supreme Court opinion
Earlier, Ripple’s chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty highlighted a US Supreme Court opinion arguing that legal teams and courts should adapt factors from old cases to fit the evolving legal landscape, which he said aligned with Ripple’s argument, suggesting that the interpretation of the Howey test needed to fit the common law framework.
More recently, he shared a Supreme Court decision from 1976, which got attention last week, and in which the SEC had said that art lithographs, even when sold for investment, were not securities when there are no post-sale contractual obligations from the seller in favor of the buyer.
In the meantime, the token at the center of this lawsuit, XRP, is currently trading at the price of $0.46, which represents a decline of 1.64% in the last 24 hours but still an increase of 8.38% over the previous seven days and 2.44% in the last month, as per the latest data retrieved by Finbold on May 22.
