The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) deems Ether a commodity, as per the latest court filing against FTX, Alameda Research, and Sam Bankman-Fried.
The filing against FTX briefly mentions that “Certain digital assets are “commodities,” including bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), tether (USDT) and others, as defined under Section 1a(9) of the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 1a(9).”
Two weeks back, CFTC chair Rostin Behnam stated, “the only cryptocurrency that should be classified as a commodity is Bitcoin.” But in May, the CFTC chair said in an interview that he deems both Bitcoin and Ethereum as commodities.
A lot of confusion has been going around on whether Ether is a security or commodity after Ether switched to proof-of-stake (PoS), and discussions arose that staked tokens might qualify as securities under the Howey test.
In September, even SEC Chairman Gary Gensler sharpened his stance on PoS crypto being classified as securities saying it might pass the Howey test used by courts to determine whether an asset is a security.
CFTC and SEC are yet to give a clear statement on whether both entities consider Ether as a commodity, and that sets the tone for the rest of the crypto assets.
Also Read: Senator Cynthia Lummis Says Ether is Now a Security
