Crypto Market News: US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Behnam on Tuesday reiterated his stance that Ethereum is a commodity and not security. This comes at a time when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed back to back complaints against two of the world’s top crypto exchanges, Binance and Coinbase over violation of financial regulations. The SEC had been emphasizing that crypto businesses operating in the United States come forward and register digital asset trade related operations with it. However, there is no clarity as to which laws would the crypto assets fit under.
Gary Gensler, the SEC Chair had recently stirred a controversy in the crypto market by saying that everything other than Bitcoin is a security. He maintains that Bitcoin is not a security but a commodity under the CFTC’s jurisdiction. On the contrary, CFTC Chair Behnam had been saying that Ethereum qualifies as a commodity. This confusion and uncertainty, as things stand, is still not resolved although efforts are on with a draft bill to categorize which assets are securities and commodities.
“Ethereum Is A Commodity”
Speaking in a US House Committee hearing on “The Future of Digital Assets: Providing Clarity for Digital Asset Spot Markets,” Behnam reiterated his stance on Ethereum being a commodity. The question arose when Congressman Austin Scott said crypto assets were clearly not securities and that the assets should be regulated by the CFTC and not the SEC. The CFTC Chair replied,
“I’ve argued in the past that Ether is a commodity.”
