CFTC recognizes Bitcoin as legal

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has issued a regulatory order and indicted California-based Coinflip, Inc. d/b/a Derivabit (Coinflip) and its CEO Francisco Riordan. The CFTC said that Coinflip and Francisco Riordan conducted commodity options transactions in compliance with the U.S. Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.

The CFTC found that between March 2014 and August 2014, Coinflip and Francisco Riordan used an online device called Derivabit to match buyers and sellers of Bitcoin options contracts. Therefore, the CFTC strictly required Coinflip and Francisco Riordan to stop all non-compliant activities.

“While investor enthusiasm for Bitcoin and other virtual currencies continues to grow, this innovation does not exempt them from the same laws and regulations that apply to all other products in the commodity derivatives markets,” said Aitan Goelman, director of the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement.

In the press release of this regulatory order, the CFTC stated that this is the first time that the CFTC has reasonably defined Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as commodities. It must be said that this is also the first time that Bitcoin has been recognized in the long-term regulatory controversy. Forex traders expect that the inclusion of Bitcoin in the regulatory scope also means that more non-compliant Bitcoin trading platforms will be sanctioned by regulators in the future.