CFTC Chair Walks Back on Previous Statements Regarding Ethereum, Says Only Bitcoin is Commodity – Regulation Hammer Coming Down?
Only bitcoin (BTC) should be considered a commodity for regulatory purposes, and not ethereum (ETH), Rostin Behnam, chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), said in a recent speech.
The view that BTC is the only cryptocurrency that can be considered a commodity is of major importance for the crypto space, and could potentially spell trouble for ETH and other tokens going forward. It also contradicts previous remarks from Behnam, who in October suggested that ETH could also be a commodity.
During the event, Behnam commented on his experience working with bitcoin as a regulator, and admitted that the asset is difficult to regulate within the current framework.
“[Bitcoin is] unlike any commodity we have dealt with,” Behnam said.
If ETH is instead deemed a security for regulatory purposes, a stronger regulatory crackdown on both ETH as well as nearly all other altcoins can be expected from US regulators. Such a scenario has long been feared in Ethereum circles, although it remains unclear exactly how it would affect the Ethereum project and the price of ETH.
The Ethereum Foundation, which funds much of the development that happens on the Ethereum network, is not based in the US, but instead registered in Switzerland. Additionally, much of the trading in ETH and other altcoins happens on offshore exchanges that are not regulated in the US.
In his remarks, the CFTC chair further admitted that the matrix between regulators is an “imperfect system.” Still, he maintained that collaboration between the different regulatory agencies in the US is good.
The two most important agencies for regulating crypto in the US is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), led by the noted crypto-critic Gary Gensler, and Behnam’s
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