Charles Hoskinson and Ripple CTO clash over corruption in the SEC

Founder Cardano Charles Hoskinson discussed the ETHgate phenomenon and said that the SEC’s actions toward cryptocurrencies are not linked to corruption.

ETHgate is a conspiracy theory according to which Ethereum has received covert approval from American regulators. In particular, the SEC has long maintained that ETH is not a security, while at the same time pursuing other digital assets such as XRP from Ripple.

According to Hoskinson, a statement published this summer by former SEC Corporate Finance Division director William Hinman in 2018 on Ethereum’s regulatory status proves not corruption within the regulator, but its “favoritism”.

“What evidence do you have of bribery? Where are the emails? Where do the meetings take place? […] This is how the Internet works, and right now it’s impossible to fix,” added the Cardano co-founder.

He also argues that XRP has a completely different business model, serving clients of varying sizes without using smart contracts.

I would argue that a government actor showing favoritism aligned with the personal interests of themselves and their friends is corruption.

— David “JoelKatz” Schwartz (@JoelKatz) October 12, 2023

“I would say that government officials showing favoritism in accordance with their own interests and the priorities of their friends are corruption,” Schwartz said.

One speculated that Hoskinson is not telling all the information, concealing facts about his early days working at Ethereum.

The head of Cardano was one of the co-founders of the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and served as chief executive since 2013. However, in 2014 he left the post due to differences with other co-founders and started his own project.

In October, Hoskinson accused Ethereum and Vitalik Buterin of plagiarism over a new proposal for decentralizing the blockchain.