SEC v. Ripple: Jeremy Hogan shares “origins story” and defends Ethereum
“I just looked at the lawsuit and said “this is not a slam dunk lawsuit” and so I told my wife I wanted to do a video on this”, he said. The video was published on 5 January 2021 and it was the first of many since then.”
Attorney Jeremy Hogan, Partner at the Hogan & Hogan law firm based in Orlando, Florida, discussed Ripple and XRP-related subjects with Scott Powell and “Crypto Eri” on Youtube.
In a year, Hogan rose to become one of the leading influencers in the crypto space, with a particular emphasis on XRP, and he told his origins story, which started in January 2021, two weeks after the SEC filed the complaint against Ripple Labs.
“I had a Coinbase account and had 1 bitcoin and 2 Ethereum and I was like “I’m so cool, I’m a crypto guy”. I didn’t know what a blockchain was or a ledger or anything”, he said, adding that at that time he noticed a “doom and gloom” mood about the XRP lawsuit.
“I just looked at the lawsuit and said “this is not a slam dunk lawsuit” and so I told my wife I wanted to do a video on this”, he said. The video was published on 5 January 2021 and it was the first of many since then.
“Now I have a wallet and my ledger. So I really am one of the group”, he continued, as he pointed out that meeting people from all over the world has been the best part of his journey.
Prior to analyzing the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit on Youtube, he was already an active member of the social media platform with videos on all kinds of popular legal questions, covering marijuana, sexting, telemarketing, and tomatoes.
More articles covering the XRP Army live session:
XRP lawsuit: Attorney Hogan plays SEC counsel against Ripple for 5 minutes
Will Ripple win the case and, if not, what will be the future of XRP?
Ethereum: “Beware of what you wish for”
It is undeniable that there was already a lot of infighting within the digital asset ecosystem, but the XRP lawsuit has fueled the debate over the role of the Ethereum Foundation in the events prior to the SEC complaint, namely the meetings and emails before the 2018 speech on Ether by William Hinman.
The court may ultimately order the SEC to produce some of that evidence in order to eventually support Ripple’s defense. For now, the SEC will ask the Judge to reconsider the ruling, which may be confirmed this month.
XRP remains delisted in most exchanges in the United States, who fear they could get sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for facilitating the trading of what could still be ruled as unregistered securities.
In the meantime, ETH is the top 2 crypto asset by market cap, trading above $3,000 and being exchanged in thousands of markets.
In July 2021, Jeremy Hogan analyzed Ethereum in terms of its “danger rating” of being sued by the SEC. In that video, he pointed to its fundraising event which “sure looked like” an initial coin offering and the centralized management structure of the organization, which are problematic. Ethereum 2.0 added profit to stakers to the equation, which makes it worse.
Questioned if Ethereum will ever be held accountable by the SEC or if they will get a second free pass despite “all the stuff that came out”, Jeremy Hogan took the diplomatic road.
“Beware of what you wish for. If Ethereum gets sued by the SEC, what does that do to the crypto space? What if it loses?”
“I agree we need clarity and level the playing field but be careful of wishing ill upon you neighbor because we are all teammates in the big picture. Ethereum may be a ball hog but is still your teammate and if it goes down with an injury, the whole team suffers.”
