The documents might help the likes of Ripple, Coinbase and other businesses that have had a run-in with the SEC.
The highly-anticipated Hinman documents have finally been unveiled and made available to the public. However, the contents therein may just have revealed why the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) should not be the agency overseeing digital assets.
The documents, which were unveiled on Tuesday, contained some of the past views of the former director of the corporate finance division at SEC Bill Hinman.
According to a 2018 speech by Hinman, Ether (ETH) is not a security and shouldn’t be classified as such. Furthermore, the documents also detailed several communications within the agency that suggest the SEC’s view of the matter long before the 2018 speech and even after it.
Crypto Lawyer Highlights the Significance of the Hinman Documents
John Deaton, a crypto lawyer and founder of CryptoLaw, has also shared his view of the newly released documents. Per Deaton, the documents might help Ripple, Coinbase, and others alike, that have had a run-in with the SEC.
However, he also claims that there’s no saying the extent to which the documents might prove helpful in court. That is because the documents do not take away the possibility that Ripple offered or sold XRP as an investment contract. And neither does it take away XRP’s status in the secondary markets in the United States.
Nonetheless, Deaton believes that the documents could help Ripple’s arguments in court. That is because Hinman’s speech was enough to cause market confusion and hinder certain market participants from fully understanding what the existing regulations required of them.
The CryptoLaw founder also says that the documents are likely to influence public opinion on great levels. And expectedly, public opinions are known to ultimately shape legislative discussions in the halls of Congress. Most especially, when the public begins to raise concerns about how regulators conduct themselves and interpret existing laws.
Deaton then said finally about the document:
“It highlights the massive conflicts of interests and gross appearances of impropriety by William Hinman and Jay Clayton.”
Clayton was the previous chairman of the SEC who served from May 4, 2017, until December 23, 2020.
Regulatory Clarity Needed Now More than Ever
Reacting to the overall implications of the documents, Deaton says it only highlights an urgent need for Congress to step in and save the day. He claims that the digital assets industry is in dire need of clarity as regards its governing rules. And also suggested that the SEC, after all, may not be the appropriate agency to oversee the crypto industry. That is considering the obvious conflicts of interest and impropriety shown in the documents.
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