- He refused to recognize BTC and ETH as goods
- It was his statement that formed the basis of Ripple’s defense strategy.
- Now in the department he was simply “crossed out”
“Employed from May 2017 to December 2020” is all the information you can find about William Hinman on the SEC website. And, meanwhile, it was his statement about the decentralization of crypto assets that formed the basis of Ripple’s defense strategy in court.
Apparently, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) no longer considers the contribution of the former head of corporate finance significant. Where there was an extensive description of Hinman’s biography, a couple of lines now flaunt.
Why is he so important? In 2018, at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit, Hinman made a controversial statement about the regulatory definition of crypto assets. In particular, he noted that BTC and ETH cannot be considered securities due to their decentralized nature.
Later, it was this statement that formed the basis of the Ripple defense strategy. The SEC sued the company for violating industry laws.
The regulator later petitioned to censor Hinman’s papers, but was denied. Thanks to the disclosure of the statement of the former head of the corporate finance department, Ripple’s chances of winning in court have increased significantly.
Hinman himself did not directly oppose the SEC, although he repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. However, his statement seems to have been enough to erase the former employee from the annals of the department’s history.
A page with Hinman’s full biography can be viewed at internet archive. And this is how she looks now:
Not a bad thank you for your service, right?