Tarbet said:

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

Besides, the CFTC chairman also expressed his wish of the U.S. taking the leading role in the blockchain and digital assets market.

He said:

“I want to stress the importance of blockchain and digital assets to the United States, and in particular, as CFTC Chairman, I want the U.S. to lead in this technology.”

Besides, he also stated that the CFTC is closely working with the SEC on these two cryptocurrencies. These two regulators commonly agree that Bitcoin and Ethereum are not securities. Speaking on this matter, Compound Finance General Counsel Jake Chervinsky pointed out:

Forked Digital Assets to Get the Same Regulatory Status

Chairman Tarbet was also asked whether the same rules are applicable to forked cryptocurrencies. He said that any forked asset, Ethereum Classic, in this case, will get the same regulatory status as Ether.

He added:

“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.”

Apart from Ether, Tarbet also answered questions on Facebook‘s Libra project. He said major regulators are looking into it and yet to determine is the Libra stablecoin falls under the security classification. “Is it a security, first and foremost. And if it isn’t a security, it is most likely a commodity,” he said. When it comes to having regulations for digital assets, Tarbet’s views are quite similar to his predecessor Christopher Giancarlo. The ex-CFTC chairman is known popularly as ‘Crypto Dad’ for his pro-crypto stand.

Article Produced By
Bhushan Akolkar