According to today's press release:
https://twitter.com/CFTC/status/1047587674486390786
This is according to a ruling from September 26th 2018, in a case that involved a digital currency, My Big Coin (MBC) that was found to be a commodity "because the CFTC alleged that MBC “is a virtual currency and it is undisputed that there is futures trading in virtual currencies (specifically involving Bitcoin).”"
CEO of Security Token focused company TWO12, Dustin Byington, took to Twitter to give an in depth analysis on projects with operations or users in the United States:
https://twitter.com/Dustin_Byington/status/1047608158120804353
Byington's interpretation is that digital currencies that are not considered Securities (the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has mentioned Bitcoin and Ethereum thus far) are considered commodities based on this ruling. These tokens would fall under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an organization that has thus far been more hands off with a "wait and see" approach in their regulation of this asset class.
For tokens that are structured like traditional securities, Byington expects those to be regulated by the stricter SEC, but that innovation is still very possible, especially with SEC Chairman Jay Clayton's recent statements:
https://twitter.com/Dustin_Byington/status/1035243220224147458
Overall, he takes this ruling and subsequent news as a positive step:
https://twitter.com/Dustin_Byington/status/1047608176613449728
This story originally appeared on BlockchainBeach.com. You can read it at https://www.blockchainbeach.com/cftc-federal-court-rules-digital-currencies-as-commodities/