I just saw this news piece and had to share it. It’s a day old, but it’s still super relevant for us to think about and maybe discuss.
Bitcoin has been through a ton since it first popped up in 2008. When it first appeared, some folks were curious, while others totally hated it. A big moment was when it hit an all-time high of around $67,567 on November 8, 2021. But what’s really got my attention here is the milestone of Bitcoin officially being recognized as a financial asset by US authorities.
Back on September 17, 2015, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) declared Bitcoin a commodity, which set up a regulatory framework that lets it stand alongside Gold and other valuable metals. According to their ruling and section (1)a of the Commodity Exchange Act, commodities are "all services, rights and interests in which contracts for future delivery are presently or in the future dealt with" and Bitcoin fits that bill.
This is definitely a milestone worth celebrating. It really shows how far Bitcoin has come, especially with Gary Gensler from the SEC keeping a close eye on other crypto assets to figure out if they should be seen as securities.
Yes, arguably the two most important milestones in Bitcoin's short history are the ATH of $67,567. Another thing is the recognition of Bitcoin as a financial asset by US regulators.
Although I remember that an American judge ruled that Bitcoin is considered a form of money, however, Bitcoin is considered a more regulated commodity than a currency or investment, in addition to the fact that the volatility of Bitcoin makes room for futures trading.
Because futures markets allow investors to speculate without having to hold the underlying asset, Bitcoin has attracted the attention of large institutions and this has helped to position Bitcoin more as a commodity than anything else.
I think that the editors of bitcoinmagazine did not find any news that day, so they thought about exploiting this historical coincidence, but there is nothing special about classifying Bitcoin as a commodity that encourages us to celebrate it.
According to our concept, Bitcoin is considered money and not a commodity. It is traded and dealt with like securities, except that the central bank has no authority over it. The evidence for this is that sometimes governments recognize something in order to impose taxes on it.
You are probably right.
Well, according to Satoshi's initial idea that many people share, but some times an invention differs from the idea of its creator.
I do not see the parallelism with securities, because in the markets you can trade securities and commodities indistinctly and that does not tell us anything about the nature of them.
I would modify "if you can't beat them, join them" to "if you can't beat them, tax them".
Recently, a judge recognized Ethereum as a commodity, but since American cryptocurrency legislation is still being formed, a lot of questions arise.
If Bitcoin is a commodity, then why is it traded on crypto exchanges and their licensing procedures are different from commodity exchanges?
Then you can ask many more similar questions to which there will be no answers.