The Chairman of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Rostin Benham, has announced that an Illinois court has officially classified Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as commodities. This ruling, delivered by Judge Mary Rowland, confirms the CFTC's jurisdiction over these digital assets and ends a long-standing dispute with its sister agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The court's decision also found that defendants in a crypto-related case had committed fraud by promising investors 15% annualized returns in “digital asset commodities” including BTC and ETH. Furthermore, the court ruled that “OHM and Klima, two non-Bitcoin virtual currencies … qualify as commodities.”

While BTC's regulatory status has been clear, ETH's classification has been uncertain. However, recent developments, such as the SEC's approval of Ether spot ETFs and the end of their investigation into Consensys, suggest that ETH has been implicitly accepted as a commodity. This has encouraged crypto firms like VanEck to file for a Solana ETF, arguing that SOL should also be considered a commodity.

In his testimony, Benham called for legislative authority from Congress for the CFTC to require disclosures on the structure of commodity-based tokens prior to their launch. He also suggested a balanced framework for determining whether tokens are commodities or securities under existing law.