According to the most recent court filing that was made against FTX, Alameda Research, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) considers Ether to be a commodity.
The filing against FTX briefly mentions that “Certain digital assets are “commodities,” including bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), tether (USDT) and others, as defined under Section 1a(9) of the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 1a(9).”
The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Rostin Behnam, announced around two weeks ago that “the only cryptocurrency that should be classed as a commodity is bitcoin.” Nevertheless, in May, the head of the CFTC said in an interview that he considers cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum to be commodities.
After Ether transitioned to proof-of-stake (PoS), there has been a lot of debate over whether or not it is a security or a commodity. These debates began after it was suggested that staked tokens would qualify as securities according to the Howey test. This has led to a great deal of misunderstanding.
Even the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, hardened his stance on proof-of-stake (PoS) cryptocurrencies being categorized as securities in September, saying that it might pass the Howey test, which is used by courts to determine whether or not an asset is a security.
The CFTC and the SEC have not yet made a definitive declaration about whether or not both organizations consider Ether to be a commodity. This is important since it will determine how other crypto assets will be regulated.
Compiled by Coinbold
