The saga between Ripple[1] and the SEC[2] has been long drawn out, stretching from December and showing no signs of coming to an end any soon. However, a significant development took place over the past week or so, with the SEC’s efforts to block the deposition of former SEC Division of Corporation Finance Director William Hinman turning fruitless.
Right now, the aforementioned deposition is slated for 27 July, with both parties reaching an agreement on the scope of the deposition too. In speeches dating back to 2018, Hinman had stated that Bitcoin[3] and Ethereum[4] are not securities. While the SEC argued that these statements are not relevant to the present case, the defendants argued that they could provide significant insight[5] into the SEC and Hinman’s view on crypto in general and XRP in particular.
Moreover, the individual defendants submitted a supplemental letter[6] on Monday to support their request for dismissal of the case. The letter noted that on 12 July, SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Elad Roisman made statements underlining the lack of clarity in regulations, conceding that this is something the agency has been struggling with too.
In a recent podcast[7], Attorney John E. Deaton, the lead representative of a class of XRP holders who want to intervene in the said case, highlighted how this deposition might just be the turning point that Ripple needed. In his opinion, this is the second of the two biggest victories in the case, the first of which was the discovery of the Ethereum and Bitcoin documents as they could aid the court in deciding the Howey factors. He explained,
“If XRP is a functional equivalent to Bitcoin and Ether as far
