The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts is the latest court to rule that virtual currencies are commodities, and subject to Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) jurisdiction.

In CFTC v. My Big Coin Pay, Inc., the district court entered an order holding that the CFTC has the power to prosecute fraud involving virtual currency, even in instances where there is no futures contract over the relevant virtual currency. This decision, along with enforcement actions of other regulators, have provided some clarity to participants involved in virtual currency markets.

In my SECurities Law Perspectives blog post, I discussed the My Big Coin Pay decision, CFTC v. McDonnell and recent enforcement actions by the SEC, CFTC and FINRA. Click here to visit the full blog post.

 

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