XRP Lawsuit: Crypto Lawyer Sheds More Light on Crucial Secret XRP Memo

More details are coming to light in the ongoing XRP Lawsuit involving both blockchain payments firm Ripple Labs Inc. and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

XRP Lawsuit: the Secret Memo

Taking to his official X app account, XRP holder’s lawyer, John Deaton has shed light on an XRP secret memo that many believe might be instrumental in shaping the current XRP lawsuit in a remarkable way.

According to John Deaton, the secret memo behooves around the questions posed by Ripple Labs CEO, Brad Garlinghouse and CTO, CTO, David Schwartz to the duo of Hinman and Jay Clayton sometime in June 2018. 

This question was based on the clarity they needed per the status of XRP three months after Hinman gave his infamous speech where he declared that the duo of Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities, shunning XRP, the coin that was significantly competing with ETH as the second largest cryptocurrency at the time.

The exposition from John Deaton gained credibility in that an actual note from the SEC appointed Counsel to William Hinman who also attended the said meeting. The XRP holder’s lawyer said the notes from this Counsel tell a lot.

There were many points of consideration per the meeting as the legal expert noted that Garlinghouse and Schwartz must have asked the SEC officials at the time why XRP was omitted in the speech that declared BTC and ETH as non-securities. The massive exposition of the infamous controversial speech was based on the unsealing of the documents as ordered by the courts a few months ago.

Industry experts have always decried how much bad faith was shown by the top SEC officials at the time with respect to the XRP coin and Ripple Labs as a whole.

How the SEC Perceived XRP

One of the major reasons experts are attributing to the omission of XRP as a non-security in the Hinman speech is because the commission sees no intrinsic value associated with the digital currency.

The SEC believes XRP has no intrinsic value. It stated this to Judge Torres in its recent motion. I did a long thread on this yesterday. It just seems to have a different view of Ethereum. https://t.co/ChG0SZrBIT

— bill morgan (@Belisarius2020) August 28, 2023

While the regulator saw Ethereum in a different light, the consensus is that this controversy hinges on the different interpretations of the Howey Test in general.

With more than 2 and a half years gone by in the XRP lawsuit, the end is now closer than ever. However, what was supposed to mark the end – the ruling from Judge Analisa Torres is being contested by the US SEC whose request for interlocutory Appeal was granted earlier this month.

Irrespective of the twist in the lawsuit at the time, the prediction of victory for Ripple Labs and XRP is high.