The Commodity Futures Trading Commission classified Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDT, and other cryptocurrencies as commodities in a court filing related to fraud accusations against Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, Alameda and FTX co-founder.
Side note: the CFTC describes BTC, ETH, USDT “and others” as commodities in the complaint.https://t.co/5r8UgtRNbA https://t.co/nzvvlxwTzO pic.twitter.com/NUf5ovgC5c
— Matthew Pines (@matthew_pines) December 22, 2022
When it comes to the regulation of cryptocurrencies, the most influential regulatory authorities are the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The CFTC is in charge of commodities, while the SEC is in charge of securities, and this is basically how they divide up their territory for their respective domains.
The question of whether cryptocurrencies should be classified as commodities or securities has been widely debated for several years at this point. Despite the SEC’s persistent efforts to classify some of these assets as securities, the fact that the CFTC is treating them as commodities is a significant development for the business.
Although the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued a blanket ruling in 2015 declaring that all cryptocurrencies, regardless of their specific nature, are in fact commodities.
SEC Chair Gary Gensler, however, has stated that the vast majority of cryptocurrencies ought to be treated as securities rather than commodities, casting doubt on the CFTC’s finding from 2015.
Not only does he argue that they need security regulation, but he also points out that not all cryptocurrencies are the same and that perhaps some of them are better classified as commodities than securities.
Meanwhile, as is clear from the most recent court filing, the CFTC does not appear to give a great deal of weight to Gensler’s opinion, as they continue to treat cryptocurrencies in the same manner as commodities. Interesting, isn’t it?
