According to CryptoPotato, Rostin Benham, Chairman of the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), has announced that an Illinois court has officially declared Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as commodities. This decision was made during a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, effectively ending the CFTC's dispute with its sister agency over the classification of these cryptocurrencies.
The court's decision was based on a summary judgment delivered by Judge Mary Rowland in a U.S. district court in Illinois on July 3. The judgment was part of a crypto-related case where the defendants were found guilty of fraud and failure to register under the Commodity Exchange Act. The defendant, Sam Ikkurty of Oregon, had lured investors to his funds by promising them 15% annualized returns paid out in 'digital asset commodities' including BTC and ETH.
The CFTC's press release last Wednesday stated that not only are Bitcoin and Ethereum commodities within the CFTC's jurisdiction, but also 'OHM and Klima, two non-Bitcoin virtual currencies … qualify as commodities.' While Bitcoin's regulatory classification has been clear for some time, there has been more uncertainty surrounding Ether. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not provided a clear statement on whether it views the asset as its jurisdiction.
However, recent developments have led the crypto industry to assume that Ether has been accepted as a commodity. In May, the SEC approved exchanges to list Ether spot ETFs, referring to the products as 'commodity-based trust shares' in their approval order. They also concluded their investigation into Consensys last month regarding whether ETH was an unregistered security.
During his testimony, Benham requested legislative authority from Congress for the CFTC to explicitly require registrants to provide disclosures on the structure of their commodity-based tokens before launching them. He suggested that the Committee should consider a disciplined, balanced framework for the determination of tokens as commodities or securities under existing law.