• As the SEC continues its row with Ripple Labs, whispers of a conspiracy against XRP have surfaced.
• Cardano’s founder dismissed claims that Ethereum may be behind XRP’s legal battle with the securities watchdog.
• He suggests that personal relationships may have steered Ethereum away from the SEC’s regulatory net.

Cardano’s founder says Ethereum may have reaped the benefits of “personal relationships” and “backroom stuff” in avoiding the SEC’s searchlight.

Cardano’s founder Charles Hoskinson has weighed in on the rumours hinting at a conspiracy against Ripple Labs by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ethereum (ETH). According to a post on X, Hoskinson pointed out that it is highly unlikely for Ethereum to have “bribed” the SEC to go after Ripple Labs.

Hoskinson noted that the reports of an Ethereum conspiracy against Ripple were widely exaggerated on the grounds that Ripple’s XRP was not a competitor in the smart contract ecosystem.

His comments come in the wake of scathing claims by Steven Nerayoff, an early Ethereum adviser, noting that the SEC may have turned a blind eye to Ethereum’s shortcomings during its initial coin offering (ICO) stage.

Hoskinson disclosed that the SEC’s decision to ignore Ethereum in the early years could be linked to the interplay of personal relationships and behind-the-scenes dealings. He added that while the allegation raises eyebrows, similar “backroom stuff” occurs in several key sectors, including Big Pharma, telecommunications, and defense industries.

“I’ve always believed that when Ethereum was an 18 million dollar ICO and very few people were doing them, the SEC decided to ignore it and crypto, and they got lucky to be too old to consider after the eye of Sauron moved over,” said Hoskinson. 

The SEC has been embroiled in a long-running legal fiasco with Ripple Labs over allegations of offering unregistered securities to the public. Ripple Labs has maintained its innocence, opting to slug it out with the regulator in court, earning a partial victory after nearly three years. 

Since the SEC labelled XRP a security, critics have been probing how Ethereum managed to “satisfy the magical agency pixie dust” after SEC staff William Hinman claimed in a speech that ETH was not a security.

Turning a blind eye to Ethereum

According to the allegations mooted by Nerayoff, the SEC turned a blind eye to a number of infractions revolving around Ethereum’s ICO. Nerayoff claimed that the ICO process was far from transparent, hinting that whales may have concealed their true positions.

There are further allegations that Ethereum may have breached its Terms of Service (ToS), raising doubt over the decentralization of the project.

Flowing from the allegation, the founder of Dizer Capital Yassin Mobarak stated that the SEC may not proceed with its case against Ripple in order to protect the “skeletons in its closet.” 

“How could these executives be expected to know, back in 2013-2018, that XRP was a security when these shenanigans were going on at the SEC?” asked Mobarak.