William Hinman, the former director of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporate Finance, affirms that he warned Ripple about XRP.
In a deposition in July, Hinman said that he told a Ripple official that he viewed XRP as an unregistered security.
“Frankly, the one I recall the most clearly is probably the one when XRP came in with a person who had my position before me, as well as enforcement counsel. They were interested in is [sic] there a way to restructure what we’re doing to bring it within compliance of the securities laws, and the first thing I said to them was you’re continuing to offer XRP without any kind of restrictions that would apply as a securities offering. If you want to come into compliance you have to stop doing that, and they understood that.”
The SEC alleges that XRP was an unregistered security upon its launch and that it remains a security to this day.
Hinman does not view all crypto assets as securities. He said in a 2018 speech that he doesn’t think Ethereum or Bitcoin are securities due to the decentralized structures of their networks.
Don't Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get email alerts delivered directly to your inboxFeatured Image: Shutterstock/graphicINmotion