Hacker News Reader

Comment by ajross | Hacker News Reader

Again, that's wrong. The CFTC absolutely does not handle regulation of options and bond funds and ETFs, etc... You seem to be invoking this "commodities" thing as a trick, and that's not how it works. We've seen this repeatably now where the SEC has to come at crypto outfits with a cluebat and explain to them (in court!) that yes: crypto assets are securities. Why do you really think it's going to be different this time?

View on HN

From the CFTC's official website:

"The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is an independent U.S. government agency that regulates the U.S. derivatives markets, including futures, options, and swaps."

Also from their official website: 20 quadrillion per week in settled trades. Too lazy to look up the equities numbers, but I would bet everything I own it's lower.

Also from the CFTC's website:

"Bitcoin is considered a commodity and is the underlying asset in bitcoin futures contracts… Bitcoin futures contracts — like other commodity futures contracts such as corn futures, market index futures, or gold futures — are regulated by the CFTC and must trade on CFTC-regulated exchanges."

SEC regulates securities-based derivatives. I used to professionally make markets in those.

SEC and CFTC are both claiming jurisdiction over Bitcoin.

Correct. And this case hinges on the yet undecided question as to whether or not Bitcoin and numerous other cryptocurrencies are actually securities.

Once more, it's not undecided. Coinbase tried exactly the same argument in their case and lost.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com