Cardano (ADA) founder Charles Hoskinson has weighed in on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) lawsuit against Ripple (XRP). His comments are getting mixed reactions, but strike a chord with many.
As co-founder of Ethereum (ETH) and inventor of Cardano (ADA), Charles Hoskinson is among the premier league of global crypto celebrities. Hoskinson maintains his image as a roughneck time and again with pithy comments on other people’s projects, and now he has dared to state his position on the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s court case against Ripple over XRP. Via Twitter, Hoskinson explains why he believes the SEC’s action against XRP is wrong and expands his criticism to over-regulation of the crypto industry in the US.
In detail, Hoskinson explains that after all, it is precisely the independent XRP community’s criticism of him that proves how decentralized Ripple’s cryptocurrency is organized. Therefore, the SEC’s thesis that XRP should be classified as a security (“securities”) is also untenable, Hoskinson says. However, he expresses surprise that Ripple’s lawyers keep targeting the “Hinman speech”, thus valuing the possible misconduct of an individual SEC board member higher than the agency’s general line of wanting to regulate cryptocurrencies with outdated laws.
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen generally agrees with Hoskinson’s comments on Twitter, but Ripple independent counsel John Deaton takes issue with individual phrases. The “Hinman speech” is not as claimed by Hoskinson just a “big conspiracy theory” and therefore not “unimportant,” Deaton protests via Twitter. Hinman had exempted Ethereum (ETH) from regulation in a speech in 2018, a privilege that Ripple also claims for XRP. Deaton and others, meanwhile, also suspect private financial interests behind Hinman’s actions.
Conclusion: scope of SEC vs. Ripple huge.
One does not have to agree wholeheartedly with Hoskinson or his opponents to understand the real crux of the discussion: The SEC’s proceedings against XRP, which have been going on for almost two years now, will – if a verdict is reached – have far-reaching consequences for the crypto industry in the US. Because if the SEC wins, it is foreseeable that it will pursue other altcoins legally. Hoskinson already took the precaution of trying to take Cardano out of the SEC’s line of fire in the summer and is now largely backing Ripple. So his approach of not reducing the SEC to its ex-representative Hinman sounds reasonable. Irritations in the XRP community about Hoskinson’s communication policy are of course allowed, but they miss the closing of ranks that the mastermind behind ADA actually hinted at.
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