Court Declares Hinman Crypto Speech Documents Unsealable

In an ongoing lawsuit between the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ripple, the company associated with the XRP cryptocurrency, a federal judge has denied the SEC’s request to seal documents pertaining to a 2018 speech given by former official William Hinman about cryptocurrencies and securities.

Court’s Ruling on the “Hinman Speech Documents”

In her ruling, District Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York stated that the documents related to Hinman’s speech, in which he expressed that, in his opinion, ether was not a security, must not be sealed. This ruling follows a January 2022 decision by Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn of the same court, stating that the documents should be disclosed to Ripple as part of the ongoing discovery process.

While the SEC will be allowed to remove names and personal details of individuals mentioned in the documents, Judge Torres ruled that the complete sealing of the “Hinman Speech Documents” was unjustified as they are pertinent to the judicial process.

The judge explained that the documents in question do not fall under the deliberative process privilege as they do not pertain to an agency position, decision, or policy. Consequently, sealing these documents would not serve to maintain ‘openness and candor’ within the agency. Furthermore, any such interest would not outweigh the prevailing presumption of public access.

Ripple’s Attempt to Redact Documents

In parallel, Ripple sought to redact several of its documents, including contract agreements, financial details, and other forms of information. Judge Torres consented to many of these redaction requests, including those related to Ripple’s financial statements and certain business information, agreeing with Ripple’s claim that they were targeted and specific.

However, the judge determined that certain redaction proposals were excessively broad, particularly those related to XRP. She pointed out examples where Ripple attempted to redact references linking its revenue with XRP sales, the compensation offered to trading platforms for listing XRP, and the amount of Ripple’s XRP sales targeted at investors through programmatic and institutional sales.