A federal court in the United States rejected Thursday’s repeated attempts by the Securities and Exchange Commission to block Ripple Labs viewing internal communications related to the regulatory standing for rival cryptocurrencies.
According to Ripple the emails would support Ripple’s position and help it win the multi-year legal battle. Decrypt interviewed legal professionals who were skeptical about the significance of the ruling and whether it would increase Ripple’s chances to win the SEC complaint. Adam David, an attorney who specializes in Web3, stated:
Ripple is looking for a smoking gun or a juicy quote that was said by the SEC four years ago. Ethereum It wasn’t considered a security. Let me explain: If you apply this reasoning to XRP it’s also not a security.
David said that the case would eventually focus on Ripple’s statements and peoples beliefs about XRP. He concluded, “I’m going be surprised if this materially moves the case.”
Related: After a “summary judgement” was filed, the Ripple and SEC matter is about to be resolved.
An expert in the case said that the reason that Ripple obtained the documents might be that they aren’t helpful to their case. Mike Handelsman, a partner at the crypto law firm Kelman PLLC, also agreed.
Bias on Hinman’s part in favor of ETH is irrelevant to the final issue in this instance, i.e. whether XRP can be considered a security.
A magistrate court had previously made the emails from 2018 by William Hinman, an ex-senior SEC official, available to Ripple. Hinman claimed in the email that Ethereum was not considered a security because it was sufficiently distributed. Despite months of unsuccessful attempts by the SEC to keep this information from Ripple’s legal team for months, yesterday’s decision forced the agency to comply.