In its Dec. 13 court filing against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) stated that digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) are commodities.
According to the CFTC, these digital assets are commodities because they satisfy the definition of the term as defined by the United States Constitution.
Is the CFTC Chairman of a different mind？
While the CFTC lawsuit stated that ETH was a commodity, CFTC chairman Rostin Behnam appears to view the asset differently.
Benham stated at a recent private cryptocurrency event at Princeton University that BTC is the only cryptocurrency that should be classified as a commodity.
The statement contradicted the regulatory chief's previous ones. In a CNBC interview in May, Benham stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum were suitable for classification as commodities.
He reportedly said something similar at a New York event in October, implying that SEC chair Gary Gensler has a different opinion.
Following the migration of ETH to the proof-of-stake network, Gensler reportedly stated that cryptocurrencies that allow staking could qualify as securities under the Howey test.
Meanwhile, token classification remains a major issue in the United States, with regulators failing to clarify how assets can be classified. The SEC and crypto payment firm Ripple are currently engaged in a two-year legal battle over whether XRP sales qualify as securities.
Other countries, such as Belgium, have declared that assets without issuers, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are not securities, whereas Canada's Securities Administrators (CSA) recently stated that stablecoins may be securities or derivatives.
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