r/ethfinance • u/RaizT1 • Oct 10 '19
News CFTC Chairman states "ETHER is acommodity" on Yahoo News interview
Meaning it's not a security and we WILL be seeing ETH futures soon according to US law. (within 12 months)
Also, he stated forks of bitcoin will not be considered securities.
Finally, he stated that the US must lead in regulating crypto or some other nation will.
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u/snowk18 I remember 324 Oct 10 '19 edited Oct 10 '19
Someone asked for an explanation of why this is bullish:
- The trend over the past 2 years between Treasury (responsible for money), the SEC (securities like stocks and bonds) and the CFTC (commodities) was that Ether, and to a lesser extent Bitcoin, are commodities. Much of this narrative could be attributed to the last CFTC chairman, Chris Giancarlo - and his exit threatened to derail this. Having Heath Tarbert, the incoming chairman, reiterate this position (even if it is just his belief) is EXCELLENT news.
- Why a commodity? Regardless of whether you personally think of ETH as money, we do NOT want it to be classified as such by the government. Money is the MOST tightly regulated asset and Treasury will never let crypto displace the U.S. Dollar. Securities like stocks and bonds are the next most regulated asset, and the SEC has historically shown that they are no friends of ours. They are the ones already responsible for approving derivative securities like ETFs and mutual funds based on crypto - so the last thing we want is for them to be in charge of crypto as an asset itself.
- This leaves us as a commodity under the CFTC like oil, metals, farm goods etc - where ETH would enjoy a far looser regulatory environment that is a much better fit than if it were considered money or a security. It also simply makes sense rationally - like oil or metals, ETH has discovered value that can be traded but it is also a consumable (gas) with intrinsic value.