Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has confirmed that Ether is now classified as “commodity”. The statement came from CFTC Chairman, Mr. Heath Tarbert. After months of studying the second largest alt coin by market cap, CFTC has decided that Ether falls under this specific jurisdiction.
This is what Mr. Tarbert commented on decision that Ether is not a security, but a commodity, just like Bitcoin.
We’ve been very clear on bitcoin: bitcoin is a commodity. We haven’t said anything about ether – until now. It is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity.
Back in 2015, the CFTC cleared out Bitcoin as a commodity, as well. However, no such guidelines were given for Ether up until now, which is a big step, considering the size of Ether.
According to Tarbert, the CFTC is working closely with the SEC on the establishment of cryptocurrencies classification (Ether and Bitcoin) and have established that these are not securities. The more interesting news, however, is that CFTC may allow ether futures to trade on the financial markets in the US. This will happen when the right conditions are met.
Regarding Facebook’s Libra, Tarbert said that federal regulators are looking into the project, and a classification on the stablecoin is most probably underway.