U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Bitcoin is a commodity

     According to Bloomberg , US regulators have officially defined virtual currencies such as Bitcoin as commodities, the same classification as crude oil or wheat.

     “In this document, the CFTC for the first time properly defines Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as commodities,” the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said in a press release.

     Houman Shadab, a professor at New York Law School , said the document dispels the idea of ​​classifying virtual currencies as securities. “Otherwise, this document would have been filed by the SEC.”

     Investors have long discussed whether Bitcoin can be defined as a commodity, and the CFTC has also been considering whether the virtual currency should be regulated by itself. Last year, the CFTC chairman told the U.S. Senate Committee to regulate Bitcoin derivatives. Thursday's document is also the first time that U.S. regulators have "reasonably" defined Bitcoin and other virtual currencies as commodities.

     Now, bitcoin futures and options are subject to CFTC regulations and oversight, and if there is improper behavior such as futures market manipulation, the CFTC will be able to punish such behavior.

     If you want to operate a bitcoin derivatives trading platform, then the company needs to register, as CME Group has done. US regulators ordered Coinflip and its CEO Francisco Riordan to shut down unregistered bitcoin options trading platform Derivabit due to their non-compliance with the Commodity Exchange Act and other regulations. The trading platform provided "financial derivatives to manage bitcoin volatility."

     CFTC Enforcement Director Aitan Goelman also said that although Bitcoin and other virtual currency transactions are active, innovation is not an excuse and they must also comply with all commodity derivatives market rules.