Another one of the cryptocurrency cases in the USA is over. The court issued a commodity decision for two cryptos.
Accordingly, Judge Mary Rowland of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found the CFTC right and ordered that an Oregonian named Sam Ikkurty and his company Jafia pay more than $120 million in compensation to the victims in a “Ponzi”-like fraud case.
In the lawsuit, the CFTC alleged that Sam Ikkurty and his company were not registered and committed fraud, and that Sam Ikkurty and his company, which promised investors an 18% annual return, raised approximately $44 million from at least 170 investors through his website and YouTube.
Judge Rowland also ruled that the cryptocurrencies Olympus (OHM) and KlimaDAO (KLIMA) are commodities.
CTFC said the following in its announcement:
“The verdict found that Ikkurty and other defendants violated the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, including fraud and failure to register.
The decision not only states that Bitcoin and Ethereum commodities are within the jurisdiction of the CFTC, but also that OHM and KLIMA, two virtual currencies other than BTC and ETH, also qualify as commodities, and that these virtual currencies are in the same general class as Bitcoin and are traded in regulated futures. states that it has been done.”
Evaluating the decision, experts say that the judge's characterization of the altcoins named OHM and KLIMA as commodities does not resolve the ongoing debate in the USA about which assets are securities and which are commodities and the general uncertainties in the cryptocurrency sector.
Because in the USA, cryptocurrencies that have the status of securities fall under the jurisdiction of the SEC, and cryptocurrencies that have the status of commodities fall under the jurisdiction of the CFTC. However, CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam argues that most cryptocurrencies are commodities, while SEC Chairman Gary Gensler argues that most cryptocurrencies are securities.
“I don't think this decision is a big deal because the SEC may recognize both cryptocurrencies (OHM and KLIMA) as securities in the future,” said attorney James Brady, partner at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP. said.
*This is not investment advice.
