Ripple’s general counsel Stuart Alderoty said on his verified Twitter account that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has given Ripple Labs Inc. internal documents which contain comments by former SEC Corporation Finance Division director William Hinman which contain comments on cryptocurrencies.

The documents were surrendered due to a court ruling which required they be turned over to Ripple Labs. Within the tranche of documents were internal SEC emails as well as drafts of Hineman’s speech at the June 2018 Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit.

Alderoty wrote on Twitter, “Over 18 months and 6 court orders later, we finally have the Hinman docs (internal SEC emails and drafts of his infamous 2018 speech). While they remain confidential for now (at the SEC’s insistence), I can say that it was well worth the fight to get them.”

In Hinman’s speech, he stated that Ether is not a security.

In the long-running legal battle between Ripple and the U.S. securities regulator, this development could prove to be a major milestone. In 2020 the SEC filed its lawsuit against Ripple Labs, in which it accused the company of issuing the XRP token as an unregistered security to raise money.

It is expected the outcome of this lawsuit will set a precedent for how cryptocurrencies will be classified under US financial regulations.

XRP was trading at around US $0.45 on Friday morning in Asia, down from US $1.09 one year prior.