Bitcoin Is a Commodity — ‘There Is No Dispute About This’ – Regulation Bitcoin News

U.S. Sen­a­tor John Booz­man says bit­coin, although a cryp­tocur­ren­cy, is a com­mod­i­ty in the eyes of the fed­er­al courts and the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) chair­man. He stressed that exchanges where com­modi­ties are trad­ed, includ­ing bit­coin, must be reg­u­lat­ed and the Com­mod­i­ty Futures Trad­ing Com­mis­sion (CFTC) is the right reg­u­la­tor for the cryp­to spot market.

Bitcoin Is a Commodity

U.S. Sen­a­tor John Booz­man (R‑AR), rank­ing mem­ber of the U.S. Sen­ate Com­mit­tee on Agri­cul­ture, Nutri­tion, and Forestry, talked about bit­coin and cryp­to reg­u­la­tion Thurs­day at the hear­ing titled “Why Con­gress Needs to Act: Lessons Learned from the FTX Col­lapse.” The com­mit­tee is respon­si­ble for the over­sight of the U.S. com­mod­i­ty markets.

He said:

Bit­coin, although a cryp­tocur­ren­cy, is a com­mod­i­ty. It is a com­mod­i­ty in the eyes of the fed­er­al courts and in the opin­ion of the Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion (SEC) chair­man. There is no dis­pute about this.

Call­ing the FTX col­lapse “shock­ing,” the sen­a­tor said: “Pub­lic reports sug­gest a com­plete lack of risk man­age­ment, con­flicts of inter­est, and mis­use of cus­tomer funds. There is sim­ply no place for such behav­ior, espe­cial­ly in our finan­cial markets.”

Senator Pushes for CFTC to Regulate Crypto Sector

Sen­a­tor Booz­man pro­ceed­ed to talk about cryp­to reg­u­la­tion and empow­er­ing the Com­mod­i­ty Futures Trad­ing Com­mis­sion (CFTC) as the pri­ma­ry reg­u­la­tor of the cryp­to spot mar­ket. He stressed:

If there are exchanges where com­modi­ties are trad­ed — be it wheat, oil, or bit­coin — then they must be reg­u­lat­ed. It is that sim­ple. The choice not to reg­u­late leaves con­sumers at the mer­cy of those who would prey upon them.

“The CFTC has con­sis­tent­ly demon­strat­ed its will­ing­ness to pro­tect con­sumers via enforce­ment actions against bad actors,” Sen­a­tor Booz­man con­tin­ued, adding:

I am con­fi­dent the CFTC is the right agency for an expand­ed reg­u­la­to­ry role in the dig­i­tal com­mod­i­ty spot market.

In August, Booz­man and sev­er­al sen­a­tors intro­duced the Dig­i­tal Com­modi­ties Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Act (DCCPA) to “empow­er the CFTC with exclu­sive juris­dic­tion over the dig­i­tal com­modi­ties spot mar­ket.” Two oth­er bills have been intro­duced in Con­gress this year to make the deriv­a­tives reg­u­la­tor the pri­ma­ry watch­dog for the cryp­to sector.

While bit­coin is a com­mod­i­ty, SEC Chair­man Gary Gensler has said repeat­ed­ly that most oth­er tokens are secu­ri­ties.

What do you think about the com­ments by Sen­a­tor John Booz­man? Let us know in the com­ments sec­tion below.

Kevin Helms 

A stu­dent of Aus­tri­an Eco­nom­ics, Kevin found Bit­coin in 2011 and has been an evan­ge­list ever since. His inter­ests lie in Bit­coin secu­ri­ty, open-source sys­tems, net­work effects and the inter­sec­tion between eco­nom­ics and cryptography.

Image Cred­its: Shut­ter­stock, Pix­abay, Wiki Commons