In a Dec 13 court filing, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) again labeled the native currency of Ethereum, Ether,  as a commodity. This development occurred after the statement was received on Nov 30 from the Commissioner of the CFTC, Rostin Behnam, who called Bitcoin the only cryptocurrency to be considered a commodity.

Under the United States Law, the regulators called Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether (USDT) “among others” as “commodities” as defined under Section 1a(9) of the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 1a(9) in its lawsuit against FTX owner and sister company Alameda Research.

In the recent past weeks, it seemed like there has been confusion among the members of CFTC itself to call Ether a commodity or not. 

While speaking at a crypto event at Princeton University on November 20, commissioner Rostin claimed that Bitcoin is the only crypto asset that should be treated as a currency. He had previously called out that Ether can also be considered a commodity.

During the same time period, Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, also shared a similar inconclusive stance on Ether.

On June 27, during the hosts’ Mad money show, Jim Cramer was informed by Gensler in an interview that Bitcoin was a commodity and “That’s the only one I’m going to say.”

Ether was considered as security by Gensler previously, during its initial coin offering; however, according to him, it has turned into a commodity as it became more decentralized.

When Ether moved from proof-of-work to proof-of-stakes in September, he claimed that, under the Howey test, staked tokens might constitute securities.

In the United States, to give a designation to the crypto asset is significant, as the regulatory bodies for commodities and securities are different; commodities come under CFTC, and securities like bonds and stocks are regulated by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Senior United States senator Elizabeth Warren has been working hard to impose a bill that will allow the SEC to have most of the control over the crypto sector. In contrast, Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of Intercontinental Exchange Inc, has claimed confidently that crypto assets should be treated like securities, not commodities. He suggested this on Dec 6 at a financial service conference, which will create a secure consumer environment.

Moreover, taking a completely different approval to give a designation to a crypto asset, Belgium, along with its Service and Markets Authority, asserted in a report shared on Nov 22 that crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ether, and others that are completely issued by computer code cannot be considered as securities. 

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