CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam announced that Ethereum (ETH) and stablecoins are commodities in Wednesday's Senate Agricultural court hearing.
During the court hearing held on Wednesday, US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand asked Behnam about the longstanding debate between the SEC and the CFTC on the classification of Ethereum. Behnam responded by stating,
“I’ve made the argument that Ether is a commodity. It’s been listed on CFTC exchanges for quite some time.”
He noted that listing Ethereum on CFTC-approved exchanges grants the regulatory agency a direct jurisdictional hook to oversee the ETH derivatives market.
Referring to an earlier settlement with Tether (USDT), the CFTC Chair claimed that the stablecoin is a commodity. He further stressed that Tether and other stablecoins should be considered commodities according to the legal analysis of the Tether case.
In his words,
“Stablecoins are and should be prudentially regulated financial instruments. Notwithstanding a regulatory framework around stablecoins, they’re going to be commodities in my view.”
His words were synonymous with CFTC’s court filing dated December 2022. In its charges against FTX and Alameda Research, the regulatory body cited that Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum, and Tether were commodities under US laws.
However, Rostin Behnam’s latest comments were vastly different from Gary Gensler’s opinions. In February, the SEC Chair claimed that all tokens other than Bitcoin qualify as securities instead of commodities.
Written by
Ayush Pande
Ayush Pande is a hardware, gaming, and crypto writer based in India. He's a tech enthusiast who's fascinated by the potential of blockchain technology.
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