CFTC Chairman Confirms Bitcoin, Ether Are Commodities

The chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says he is certain bitcoin and ether are commodities. He outlined how his agency is working with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the crypto sector, noting that “there are no customer protections right now in the crypto market.”

CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam discussed the regulation of cryptocurrencies by the CFTC and the SEC in an interview with CNBC last week.

The chairman was asked to comment on a bill in Congress that puts the SEC in charge of security tokens and the CFTC in charge of commodity tokens.

“This is a little bit of an age-old issue between the CFTC and the SEC. We have a great relationship historically … Within this space, in my view, it makes sense for commodities to be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and securities to be regulated by the SEC,” Behnam detailed.

The CFTC boss noted that within the crypto space, there will be some coins that are securities and some that are commodities.

When asked to comment on SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s claim that most of the crypto tokens out there are securities, Behnam stressed that the largest cryptocurrencies are commodities. He emphasized:

Well, I can say for sure bitcoin … is a commodity. Ether as well.

Admitting that there may be a lot of security coins, the CFTC chief noted, “there are plenty of community coins.” He clarified: “I think it makes sense that each agency has jurisdiction over commodities and securities respectively.”



The CFTC chairman was asked whether there is any disagreement between the two agencies. “I wouldn’t say there is disagreement,” he replied, emphasizing that each agency tries to do what’s best.

Commenting on the crypto market sell-off last week, Behnam said:

A lot of people got hurt. A lot of value was lost in the market, and there really are no customer protections right now.

He concluded that both the CFTC and the SEC want to regulate the crypto sector “thoughtfully,” protect customers, and protect financial stability.

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