The SEC has released internal documents related to former commissioner William Hinman's speech on digital assets in 2018. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has accused the SEC of causing chaos in the industry by releasing the speech, which had warnings from agency members about creating confusion in the market.

The speech provided an illustrative list of factors the SEC might consider when determining whether a digital asset is a security, but some agency members criticized it for being ambiguously worded and not closely tied to the Howey analysis. Ripple asserts that Hinman's speech describing Ether as a commodity would also rule out XRP from being a security since it was sold in a similar fashion.