The CFTC Commissioner Concluded: Ethereum Is Under Our Jurisdiction

The CFTC Commissioner concluded that Ethereum is under the agency’s jurisdiction, bringing plenty of controversy over the regulation of BTC, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies as we can see more in our latest Ethereum news.

In an intervention on the Aspen Security Forum, Gary Gensler failed to clear the regulatory stand on ETH and hinted at a potential further expansion of the Commission’s jurisdiction over cryptocurrencies. This instigated a subtle pushback from the major financial regulator in the US, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission. After this event, the Commissioner from the agency Brian Quintenz replied:

“Just so we’re all clear here, the SEC has no authority over pure commodities or their trading venues, whether those commodities are wheat, gold, oil….or crypto assets.”

BTC and ETH unlike other digital assets and cryptocurrencies are supposed to be treated as commodities and not securities under US law. This was reiterated a few times by the CFTC and most of the commissioners were accepted by previous SEC administrations. Gensler could have another view as his positions were classified as ambiguous and the investors and legal experts demanded clarification. In a response to a video published on Gensler’s official account, lawyer Jeremy Hogan demanded the SEC to give e clear answer:

“We know you understand Ethereum very well. We also understand you recently said that U.S. securities laws are “very clear.” Therefore, the millions of Americans who own Ether would like to know the answer to a SIMPLE question: is Ether a security? YES. or, NO.”

After 10 days of silence, Hogan reiterated his request but to no avail. The CFTC commissioner Quintenz then decided to take it to social media and defend the jurisdiction of the regulator and to give some tranquility to the Ethereum investors. The CFTC commissioner concluded:

“Hogan has been very active in the legal battle started by the SEC against Ripple Labs and some of its executives for the alleged sales of an unregistered security, XRP. He has argued, as many from the XRP and Ethereum community, that regulators in the U.S. should offer more clarity on those assets that are classified as security or commodities.”

Dear @GaryGensler,
We know you understand Ethereum very well. We also understand you recently said that U.S. securities laws are "very clear." Therefore, the millions of Americans who own Ether would like to know the answer to a SIMPLE question: is Ether a security? YES. or, NO. https://t.co/dGjLW1nIzX

— Jeremy Hogan (@attorneyjeremy1) August 12, 2021

The classification is one of the few important steps to protect the investors by avoiding legal battles which could affect their capital, companies or services based on the crypto assets so the SEC chair has been calling Congress to grant more authority and regulate cryptocurrencies. This could open up the debate from the regulators which could lead to a transparent classification of crypto. The community was keeping a close eye on the political sector as the new legislation will be able to affect crypto entities in the country thus showing its capacity to organized and get back when the time is right.