Illinois court confirms Bitcoin and Ethereum are commodities: CFTC chairman

Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Rostin Benham says an Illinois court has formally ruled that both bitcoin (btc) and ethereum (eth) are commodities, virtually settling the CFTC’s cryptocurrency turf war with its sister agency.

“In its decision, the court reaffirmed that both bitcoin and Ether are commodities under the Commodity Exchange Act,” Benham said in prepared remarks during a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Wednesday.

Court confirms ethereum is a commodity

Director referenced a July 3 summary judgment issued by Judge Mary Rowland in a U.S. district court in Illinois, which found that defendants in a cryptocurrency-related case had committed fraud and failed to register under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Specifically, defendant Sam Ikkurty of Oregon recruited investors into his funds by promising them a 15% annualized return paid in “digital assets,” including btc and eth.

“The order determines that not only bitcoin and ethereum are within the CFTC’s jurisdiction, but also “OHM and Klima, two virtual currencies other than bitcoin… qualify as commodities,” the CFTC order reads. Press release last Wednesday.

While bitcoin’s regulatory classification has long been clear, more uncertainty has surrounded Ether, for which the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declined to provide a clear statement on whether it considers the asset to be within its jurisdiction.

The events of the past few months have caused the cryptocurrency industry to take for granted that Ether has been de facto accepted as a commodity. In May, the SEC approved exchanges to list Ether spot ETFs, referring to the products as “commodity-based trust securities” in its approval order. They also ended their investigation into Consensys last month regarding whether eth was an unregistered security.

The implicit acceptance of eth as a commodity has invited cryptocurrency firms like VanEck to apply for a Solana ETF, arguing that SOL looks like eth and should therefore also be a commodity.

The call for a CFTC authority on cryptocurrencies

During his testimony, Benham requested legislative authority from Congress to have the CFTC explicitly require registrants to provide information about the structure of their commodity-based tokens before launching them.

“Given the important role that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plays in overseeing securities-based digital tokens,” he added, “the Committee should consider a disciplined and balanced framework for determining tokens as commodities or securities under applicable law.”

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