Charles Hoskinson, the founder of the popular smart contract platform Cardano (ADA), in a Friday podcast with Tony Edward on the Thinking Crypto program series, made a provocative statement about the XRP lawsuit filed against Ripple by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as it relates to Ethereum (ETH).
According to the Cardano (ADA) founder who was among the co-founder of the largest smart contract platform Ethereum blockchain, the XRP community is trying to invent a "grand conspiracy that there was blatant corruption between the officers at the SEC and Ethereum (ETH).
Members of the XRP community have since attacked and slammed the Cardano blockchain creator and IOG boss in the most unpleasant ways. While some claim he is a tool in the hands of the SEC, some say the SEC will soon come for the ADA token.
This prompted Charles Hoskinson to clarify his comment in a long Twitter thread on Saturday. According to him, he never referred to the XRP Ledger native token as a security rather he only said that there is no evidence that the SEC outrightly conspired with Ethereum (ETH). He mentioned that most layer 1 tokens are not securities but commodities as they offer utility.
Also, he implied that cryptocurrencies are not above regulation stating that the underlying problem is that the SEC and CFTC are employing the wrong approach as they are ill-equipped by law and policies from the legislative arm.
William Hinman 2018 Controversial Speech About ETH Becomes a Concern
The XRP community argues that the XRP, BTC, and ETH tokens have similarities but yet the SEC has only chosen to sue XRP and Ripple, the custodians of the XRP token circulating supply. More so, Willaim Hinman, a former Director of Corporation Finance at the SEC claimed that ETH is a non-security in a 2018 speech.
In the ongoing Ripple-SEC lawsuit, the speech has become a critical factor in the case. While Ripple believes they could use this Hinman speech to facilitate a win, the SEC wants to keep it out of reach.
The crypto solutions company has consistently requested that Hinman's speech document be released to them and the court but the SEC has employed several tactics to conceal the related documents and drafts.
Interestingly, in recent outcomes, Judge Netburn and Judge Analisa Torres have ordered the securities watchdog to release Hinman emails to Ripple.
Vitalik Buterin on the Ripple-SEC Case
It is worth noting that the XRP community has not gained significant support from the crypto community, especially the Ethereum community and Vitalik Buterin. Way back in December 2020 when the Ripple-SEC case began, Vitalik Buterin revealed that he will not support the XRP community in their ongoing case.
According to him, the XRP community lost the right to be supported when they tried to put Ethereum (ETH) under the bus by dubbing it a Chinese-controlled cryptocurrency.
Although the Ripple/XRP team has not recorded significant support from the crypto industry, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse noted that their fight against the SEC is a fight for the entire crypto industry. If Ripple wins then the SEC will not have any precedent to use in attacking other projects like they are doing with XRP. However, Garlinghouse mentioned that if Ripple loses, the crypto solutions company will move its services away from the United States.
On the whole, the XRP lawsuit filed against Ripple and Ripple officials, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse seems to be tilting in favour of the crypto company. Also, the case which is almost two years old is slowly winding down as both parties have filed motions for Summary Judgment. Many companies utilizing the RippleNet solution have filed requesting to be allowed to submit amicus briefs regarding Ripple's motion for Summary Judgment.