Tag: Ethereum

Ripple vs. SEC: 189 Page Hinman Calendar Revealed Covering His Entire Tenure

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By Lele Jima. September 28, 2022. (The Crypto Basic)

Eleanor Terrett, a Fox Business journalist, shared some interesting information about the public calendar of SEC’s Bill Hinman, covering his entire tenure at the commission. 

“I have received a copy of Bill Hinman’s public calendar covering his entire tenure while at the @SECGov,” Terrett said.  

Some of the interesting details of Hinman’s public calendar include a series of meetings he had with Ethereum-related officials.

Hinman’s Meetings with Ethereum

According to Terrett, in the first two years of Hinman’s time in office, four meetings were scheduled with Ethereum blockchain software company ConsenSys and other officials related to the leading blockchain project.

On March 29, 2018, at 12:30 PM, Hinman had a scheduled meeting with ConsenSys and Amy Starr, an official of the SEC Corporation Finance.

A week later, the former SEC Corporation Finance director had a scheduled meeting with the title “ETH.” Another meeting dubbed “Ether” was also scheduled for Hinman on April 12, 2018, at 4:30 AM. On April 23, 2018, at 5 PM, Hinman had a scheduled meeting with Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin.

Read the full article here.

Former SEC director Hinman made millions from a pro-Ethereum firm during tenure

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By Protos Staff. May 13, 2022. (Protos)

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by a whistleblower has revealed former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) director William Hinman was receiving millions of dollars in retirement benefits from a pro-Ethereum law firm during his tenure.

Hinman worked as the SEC’s corporate finance division chief from mid-2017 to late-2020. In June 2018, Hinman famously stated, “The Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions,” (our emphasis).

However, information obtained by Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research shows Hinman was receiving substantial retirement benefits from his previous employer at the time of his statement. Law firm Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett is a member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, a group that supports Ethereum projects. Hinman returned to the entity after his time at the SEC, serving as a senior advisor.

Read full article here.

SEC Asked To Probe Ex-Official’s Crypto Statements

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By Al Barbarino. May 10, 2022. (Law360)

A nonprofit watchdog asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate its former corporate finance head, Bill Hinman, now a Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP senior adviser, claiming statements he made about cryptocurrencies while at the agency may have presented a conflict of interest. 

Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research claims Hinman didn’t follow instructions that the SEC’s ethics office gave him to avoid conflicts tied to his financial interests in Simpson Thacher, including the firm’s connection to the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, or EEA, according to a letter the group sent Monday to the SEC’s Office of the Inspector General.

“Directives without compliance monitoring and sanctions for noncompliance are not meaningful; they are window dressings,” said Jason Foster, president of Empower Oversight, in an announcement about the letter.

Read the full article here.

SEC Chair Gensler’s War On Crypto Is About His Resume

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By Roslyn Layton. October 29, 2021. (Forbes).

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler’s crusade against cryptocurrencies has surprised many. His three-year stint as a senior advisor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab’s Digital Currency Initiative before leading the SEC suggested that he would bring an enlightened approach to crypto. No such luck.

Gensler’s foray into cryptocurrencies appears to be more a professional resume builder than a coherent regulatory vision for the innovation that can democratize finance. Along the way, he’s been happy to play along with the SEC’s word games on whether crypto is a currency or security, as long as it moves him to center stage. It’s part of the DC playbook: the regulatory white knight confirmed on the premise to make things right, implements some industry-friendly policy marketed as pro-consumer, and then takes the next plumb job.

Many misread Gensler. His MIT perch conferred the appearance of academic expertise on blockchain. It turns out there is little record of him writing or speaking about the technology until the school hired him in 2018. His few academic presentations were co-authored by the driving force of the school’s crypto program, Media Lab director Joichi Ito. Gensler’s MIT speeches and interviews were not about the substance of blockchain but rather commentary curated to make him look like a policy expert.

Read the Full Article Here.

Congress needs to step up on crypto, or Biden might crush it

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By Former Rep. George Nethercutt (R-Wash.). October 16, 2021. (The Hill).

Recent developments both domestically and abroad have finally catalyzed the Biden administration to take the long-delayed step of engaging on the many regulatory issues surrounding cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

One of the most promising economic innovations since the internet, the market cap of cryptocurrencies is now over $2 trillion and there is a growing consensus that the technology is here to stay. What the industry needs — and the American economy would benefit from most — is a partner to help develop a comprehensive regulatory framework that would cement our country’s role as the leader in this emerging field.

Unfortunately, the Treasury Department has decided to eschew such collaboration and go in a different direction. They are instead leading a closed-door effort with the Biden-appointed heads of financial regulatory agencies to draft recommendations on how the administration should crack down on digital assets.

Read the Full Article Here.

Still-young crypto industry could grow stronger — if SEC allows it to thrive

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By Charles Gasparino. September 19, 2021. (New York Post).

The noise surrounding the $2.2 trillion crypto industry often drowns out the reality that we are on the verge of something revolutionary. If things go right, crypto and the blockchain technology could usher in the next Internet revolution. 

Things are now going terribly wrong. The US stands the very real chance of killing this business here by driving digital innovation overseas and ceding advancements to other countries including Communist China.

Why? Because our regulators, mainly those at the Securities and Exchange Commission, are either too feckless or too turf-hungry (or a combination of both) to understand the dangers of their asinine approach to overseeing a nascent and important technology.

Read the Full Article Here.

Is Ether a security? Why Ethereum might not be out of the water

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By Steven Msoh. August 17, 2021. (Crypto News Flash).

Is Ether a security? This is a question that has been asked for years now, but to date, there has been no affirmative answer. A simple question it may look like from a glance, but the implications might be worth over $350 billion and could collapse an entire industry, given that Ethereum underpins many of today’s cryptocurrency projects. And while most people – from experts to price speculators – have considered Ethereum as exempt from being deemed a security, recent developments are putting doubts about the token’s status.

Hinman clarity, and why we can’t depend on it today

To date, the clearest direction has been given by William Hinman, the former director of corporate finance at the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. Hinman was speaking at the Yahoo All Markets Summit in San Francisco in June 2018 when he made the clearest remarks yet as to whether the watchdog considers Ether a security.

Putting aside the fundraising that accompanied the creation of Ether, based on my understanding of the present state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions.

Of course, Hinman also cleared Bitcoin from being a security. However, BTC and ETH were created and sold in different ways, making each coin’s case unique.

Read the Full Article Here.

The SEC’s Fair Notice Farce, Starring William Hinman

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By Roslyn Layton. July 19, 2021. (Forbes)

Covering the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ill-conceived enforcement action against Ripple Labs is never dull, and last week offered another development in the case. When the agency accused the San Francisco-based software company of seven years of unregistered securities trades by its distribution of the XRP digital currency, it unwittingly opened the door to replacing the SEC’s antiquated Howey Test for defining securities. Moreover, it appears that the judge agrees with the defense’s argument that the SEC failed to provide fair notice to Ripple (or any market participant) that XRP was, in the agency’s view, a security since 2013.

Throughout the pre-trial phase of the case, Ripple’s legal team has demonstrated that the SEC denied fair notice not just on XRP, but cryptocurrencies in general. When Ripple filed an intention to present a fair notice defense, the SEC launched a series of desperate filings to stop Ripple, knowing that if that defense is permitted, the trial case against Ripple will be dead on arrival.

Read the Full Article Here.