CFTC declares Ether as a commodity again in court filing
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has again labeled Ether (ETH) as a commodity in a Dec. 13 court filing — in contrast to statements from chief Rostin Behnam on Nov. 30 suggesting that Bitcoin was the sole cryptocurrency that should be viewed as a commodity.
According to the CFTC, as per their filing today, ETH is a commodity. This really should put any security designation to rest. pic.twitter.com/PkHWredNK4
In its lawsuit against Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX, and sister company Alameda Research, the regulator on multiple occasions referred to Ether, Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT) "among others" as "commodities" under United States law.
However, there appears to be some disagreement within the CFTC itself regarding whether Ether should be viewed as a commodity or not, at least in recent weeks.
During a crypto event at Princeton University on Nov. 30, CFTC chief Rostin Benham reportedly suggested that Bitcoin is the only crypto asset that should be viewed as a commodity — walking back previous comments which asserted that Ether may also be a commodity.
The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler has also had an undetermined stance on Ether in recent months.
In an interview with Jim Cramer during the hosts' Mad Money show on Jun. 27, Gensler confirmed that Bitcoin was a commodity adding: “That's the only one I'm going to say.”
Gensler has previously suggested Ether was a security after its initial coin offering but had become more decentralized and turned into a commodity since then.
In September, his stance appeared to have shifted again after Ether’s transition to proof-of-stake (PoS), when he argued that staked tokens may constitute securities under the Howey test.
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