Mr. Hinman said that Ethereum was not considered a security in 2018, various opinions were received from inside the SEC | CoinDesk JAPAN | Coin Desk Japan

In 2018, William Hinman, who was head of corporate finance at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), apparently wanted to say at the time that he “sees no need…to regulate” Ethereum (ETH). is.

On June 13, Ripple Labs filed an email related to his speech in the SEC’s trial over the SEC’s allegations that it had illegally sold unregistered securities, saying that Ethereum did not seem like a security. published as.

Immediately after the email was published, XRP price surged.

Related article: XRP temporarily rises after former SEC director’s email disclosure

Emails show that SEC officials expressed mixed opinions about his speech.

“[Draft of speech]remains ambiguous as to whether Ethereum is a security. If not, for the sake of consistency, I propose to use language similar to that used in the Bitcoin re.・Market manager (at that time) wrote:

He left a comment further emphasizing that point, saying that part of the speech “seems to me that there could be a lot of confusion about Ethereum’s position.”

In an email dated May 25, 2018, Valerie Szczepanik, the current head of the FinHub Group, referred to what is believed to be one of the earliest drafts of the speech, stating, “The less the details, the better.” Good,” he writes.

“It’s an introduction to the concept and it’s probably going to get a lot of discussion, so I think it’s good to leave room for discussion.”

An early version of the speech mentions Bitcoin but not Ethereum at all.

SEC Attorney Laura Jarsulic’s emails are about the groundbreaking Supreme Court that gave rise to the so-called “Howey Test,” a test to determine what constitutes a security. Case “SEC v. WJ Howey Co.” In that case, the SEC sued Howie for violating federal securities laws by selling orange groves that promised future returns.

Jaslick suggested clarifying the Supreme Court’s decision that “a purchaser who bought land but did not buy an investment contract is not a security purchase”.

“The court ruled that only the purchase of land and service contracts constitutes a securities purchase (a person who purchased land only does not constitute a securities purchase).”

The attorney added that there could be situations where the token is indeed a security. For example, when a company issues tokens instead of shares.

Several SEC employee emails pointed to making the speech more like the aforementioned “Howie test.” It also notes that SEC officials met with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin to discuss the role of the Ethereum Foundation.

Ripple Labs chief legal officer Stu Alderoty said after the email was released on the 13th, “Mr. “You can see that we have ignored multiple warnings that we will diverge from testing factors, expose regulatory gaps and cause ‘greater disruption’ than just chaos in markets,” he tweeted.

The SEC declined to comment for this matter.

｜Translation: coindesk JAPAN
｜Editing: Takayuki Masuda
｜Image: Shutterstock
｜Original: Hinman Emails Reveal 2018 Speech on Ether Drew Input From Multiple SEC Officials