Illinois Court Confirms Bitcoin and Ethereum Are Both Commodities: CFTC Chairman

Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Benham says an Illinois court has formally ruled that both Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) are commodities, all but settling the CFTC war with its sister agency.

“In its decision, the court reaffirmed that both Bitcoin and Ether are commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act,” Benham said in prepared remarks during a US Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.

Ethereum A Commodity, Court Confirms

The president was referring to a July 3 summary judgment handed down by Judge Mary Rowland in a U.S. District Court in Illinois, which found that defendants in a crypto-related case committed fraud and did not had registered under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Specifically, defendant Sam Ikkurty of Oregon recruited investors to his funds by promising them 15% annualized returns paid in “digital asset commodities,” including BTC and ETH.

“The order finds 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,'” it read the CFTC press release last Wednesday.

While Bitcoin’s regulatory classification has long been clear, more uncertainty has surrounded Ether, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) refusing to provide a clear statement on whether it considers the asset such as their jurisdiction.

Developments in recent months have left the crypto industry assuming that Ether has been de facto 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 its approval order. They also ended their investigation into Consensys last month into whether ETH was an unregistered security.

The implicit acceptance of ETH as a commodity has invited crypto companies like VanEck to apply for a Solana ETF, arguing that SOL resembles ETH and therefore should be a commodity as well.

The call to the CFTC Crypto Authority

During his testimony, Benham called for legislative authority from Congress to require the CFTC to explicitly require registrants to provide disclosures about the structure of their commodity-based tokens before launching them.

“Given the important role that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plays in overseeing security-based digital tokens,” he added, “the Committee should consider a disciplined and balanced framework for determining tokens as to goods or securities according to current legislation.

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