Judge Calls Ether A Commodity In Latest Boost For Crypto Industry

Updated: 31 August 2023

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A US District Court Judge has referred to Ether as a commodity while dismissing a class-action lawsuit against the Uniswap decentralized exchange.

In the ruling, Judge Katherine Polk Failla noted that Bitcoin and Ether are “crypto commodities,” not securities. The judge was ruling in a case filed by Uniswap users claiming to have lost money to scam tokens on the DEX.

US District Court Judge Calls Ether A Commodity

It is not the first time that ETH has been classified as a commodity. The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) had earlier claimed that Ether and other cryptocurrencies were commodities in a lawsuit against Binance earlier this year. The lawsuit alleged that Binance violated the Commodities Exchange Act.

But the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has not categorically classified Ether as a commodity. Last month, reports suggested that the SEC had urged Coinbase to delist all other cryptocurrencies from the trading platform besides Bitcoin before suing the exchange.

The SEC has classified 13 cryptocurrencies as securities, including leading ones such as Cardano and Solana. Judge Failla is also overseeing the lawsuit filed by the SEC against Coinbase for offering unregistered securities.

US Courts Make Favourable Rulings On Crypto

Judge Failla’s classification of Ether as a commodity does not officially give the crypto asset this status. But it comes as other judges make favourable rulings for the crypto market that are nudging the industry toward greater regulatory clarity.

In July, a judge gave Ripple Labs a partial win against the SEC when it said its token, XRP, isn’t a security when sold to the public. The SEC had sued Ripple and its executives for engaging in an unregistered securities offering. The SEC plans to appeal the recent decision.

This week Grayscale Investments secured a major win against the SEC as the crypto asset manager moved to convert its over-the-counter Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into a listed spot Bitcoin ETF. The SEC is yet to approve any Bitcoin ETF.

🚨 JUST IN 🚨

The D.C. Circuit ruled in favor of @Grayscale in our lawsuit challenging the SEC's decision to deny $GBTC's conversion to an ETF!

Thank you to everyone who has been on this journey with us, especially our investors. We are grateful for your support and…

— Sonnenshein (@Sonnenshein) August 29, 2023

Judge Neomi Rao of the US Court of Appeals ordered the company’s petition for review be granted. The judge also vacated the SEC’s order to deny the GBTC listing application and said its earlier decision to block it was “arbitrary and capricious.”

The judge’s ruling does not guarantee that the application for Grayscale’s spot Bitcoin ETF will eventually be granted and it came as the SEC continues a crack down on the crypto industry. The regulatory body has filed lawsuits against two of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Coinbase, accusing them of being trading platforms that offer unregistered securities.

Markets are also watching whether the SEC will approve applications for spot Bitcoin ETF applications. The next deadlines for the regulator’s decision on these offerings are fast approaching and analysts now believe that the chances of approval have increased with Grayscale’s recent legal win.