The chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has indicated he is certain that ether and Bitcoin are commodities. He said that CFTC and SEC are working together to regulate the crypto sector.

Ether and Bitcoin are Commodities: Behnam Comments 

Rostin Behnam, the CFTC Chairman, was discussing the status of the crypto regulations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CFTC in an interview with CNBC. 

Behnam was asked to comment on the current bill in Congress that proposes SEC to be in charge of security tokens while CFTC controls commodity tokens. 

“This is a little bit of an age-old issue between the CFTC and the SEC. We have a great relationship historically … Within this space, in my view, it makes sense for commodities to be regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and securities to be regulated by the SEC,” Behnam explained.

The CFTC boss clarified that as the crypto space evolves, some coins will take the form of securities and others commodities. He clarified that most of the tokens out there today are securities, but the largest cryptos are commodities. “Well, I can say for sure Bitcoin … is a commodity. Ether as well,” the chairman pointed out. 

While noting that the list of security coins out there is long, Behnam also said that the community coins are equally many. He added that it is a good idea that each agency should have specific control over securities of commodities.

Concerning the last two weeks’ crypto sell-offs, Behnam said that it hurt a lot of people. A huge value was lost from the market, but he indicated that there was no legislation right away to protect customers.

In conclusion, the CFTC chair indicated that both the SEC and CFTC want to regulate the emerging blockchain and crypto sector in a thoughtful way, protecting customers and guaranteeing financial stability.