The Chairman of CFTC, Rostin Behnman, insists that ETH is a commodity, not a security, as claimed by Gary Gensler, chairman of the US SEC. The CFTC Chairman stressed that the derivatives watchdog would not have given permission to ether futures products to be available for trading on the CFTC-regulated crypto exchanges unless they did not consider them as a commodity asset.
CFTC Chairman insists that ETH is a commodity, not a security
Rostin Behman, Chairman of the CFTC, pointed out the claim made by the chairman of the US SEC, Gary Gensler, that all the cryptocurrencies other than the world’s largest one, BTC, are securities at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Nutrition, Forestry, and Agriculture last Wednesday.
During the hearing before the Senate Committee, Senator Kirsten asked Behman that in light of Gensler’s recent statement that all the digital assets are securities except for BTC, what does that mean for a number of DCMs currently offering futures or swaps on the ether? She replied that this would obviously raise questions about the legality of those designated contract markets, also known as DCMs, listing these digital assets that are seen as securities, reiterating that he considers ether a commodity.
Noting that the Ethereum-based products have been listed on the CFTC exchanges for quite some time, Behnam said for that reason, it might create a direct jurisdictional hook for us to police not only the derivatives market but also the underlying market.
He further explained that the process by which a crypto exchange or DCMs can list a contract is very simple under their law. They could seek approval from the CFTC, or they could self-certify a product. However, self-certification will shift the responsibility to the CFTC and the market participants.
ETH is a self-certified commodity, says CFTC Chief
As you know, the Chairman of CFTC, Rostin Behnman, insists that ETH is a commodity, not a security, as claimed by Gary Gensler, chairman of the US SEC. Discussing more on this topic, he explained why he strongly believes that ETH is a commodity and not a security.
He says that serious and deep legal analysis goes into the thought process before a product is self-certified, so there is no doubt in my mind and having known this and been at the Commission when ETH futures were listed, that both the exchange and the Commission thought very deeply and carefully about “ what is the product”. He added that they would not have been allowed to be listed on CFTC exchanges if they did not strongly believe it was a commodity.
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