Here’s When Ripple Might Seal the Deal: Top Attorney Says Hinman Documents Might Be Unsealed on This Day

District Judge Analisa Torres, presiding over the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, has made a significant ruling in the ongoing lawsuit between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple.

According to the judge’s decision, the SEC is not permitted to seal documents related to a 2018 speech given by former SEC official William Hinman to Ripple. In that speech, Hinman expressed his opinion that ether, another cryptocurrency, should not be considered a security. Judge Torres’s ruling asserts that these documents cannot be subject to a court order for sealing.

Now, according to attorney James K Filan, based on the Court’s order dated September 12, 2022, it was stipulated that the parties are given a period of 21 days to submit public, redacted versions of the Summary Judgment documents, in accordance with the ruling on sealing. Considering yesterday as the reference point, June 6th marks the completion of the 21-day duration as specified.

The important point of the legal dispute has revolved around a contentious speech from 2018. During the speech, Bill Hinman, a previous director at the SEC, provided an explanation as to why he did not classify Bitcoin or Ethereum as securities.

Hinman had said, “Putting aside the fundraising that accompanied the creation of Ether, based on my understanding of the present state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions.”

In 2021, Ripple leveraged this speech to support its argument that the SEC did not classify Bitcoin or Ethereum as securities, thus contending that XRP should not be treated as a security either. In response, the SEC asserted that Hinman’s speech might have reflected his personal opinions rather than official policy.