CFTC Chairman says "Ether is a commodity"

CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert has said in an interview that he thinks ether is a commodity. Ethereum is the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency behind Bitcoin.

Mr Tarbert said he believes ether is not a security when speaking at the Yahoo! Finance All Markets Summit. In a strong opening statement Tarbert said he wants America to lead in the game of blockchain he then went on to say:

“We’ve been very clear on bitcoin: bitcoin is a commodity. We haven’t said anything about ether – until now,” Tarbert said. “It is my view as chairman of the CFTC that ether is a commodity.”

In May, a senior CFTC official confirmed in a report with CoinDesk that the agency was ready to approve an Ethereum futures contract if it met the correct conditions. There are also plans to introduce a BTC options contract too. Tarbert went on to say:

“It stands to reason that similar assets should be treated similarly. If the underlying asset, the original digital asset, hasn’t been determined to be a security and is therefore a commodity, most likely the forked asset will be the same. Unless the fork itself raises some securities law issues under that classic Howey Test.”

So there you have it Ether is a commodity and will be on the CME exchange product list soon. Ethereum has moved higher in the last couple of hours but in general over the session is broadly flat. Sentiment in crypto's is mixed today after the SEC rejected the latest EFT proposal from Bitwise.