From the CFTC:

> Bitcoin is considered a commodity and is the underlying asset in bitcoin futures contracts… Bitcoin futures contracts — like other commodity futures contracts such as corn futures, market index futures, or gold futures — are regulated by the CFTC and must trade on CFTC-regulated exchanges.

https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/AdvisoriesAndArticles/B...

Thanks for the reference. Between this, megadal's sibling-comment Wikipedia quote, and a quick search of "economic good", I believe I was mistaken.

10 years ago, I’d probably agree with you.

Today, you can spin up your own shit coin with basically a few clicks.

The fact that you can create a crypto more easily today has nothing to do with whether or not crypto is a commodity (though I suspect that point is not really why you made this comment).

It's the fact that there's an overwhelming number of exchanges that willingly accept crypto from other exchanges coupled with the fact that anyone can mine/produce crypto. The moment that there were two places to get BTC that accept BTC from each other in exchange for money, it was a commodity.

Clearly? What distinguishes them from beanie babies or used concert ticket stubs?

Why not? It is highly litigated and still abundantly unclear whether certain cryptocurrencies are securities or commodities. That's the whole point of these legal battles. If it was clear, they would not be ongoing.

based on the definition of what a security and what a commodity, it should be abundantly clear to anyone over the age of 5 what crypto falls under:

Commodities are consumable goods that get transformed through usage in industrial or commercial processes. Gold and silver can be transformed into jewelry. Securities, on the other hand, grant holders the right to periodic benefits like dividends, coupons, principal repayments and potential profit shares.

How are you consuming crypto? What commercial or industrial process are being used?

> Commodities are consumable goods that get transformed through usage in industrial or commercial processes. Gold and silver can be transformed into jewelry. Securities, on the other hand, grant holders the right to periodic benefits like dividends, coupons, principal repayments and potential profit shares.

> How are you consuming crypto? What commercial or industrial process are being used?

What rights does holding bitcoin confer to the holder? I get no dividends, coupons, principle repayments or potential profit shares.

We’ve nicely entered why this argument still rages on. It doesn’t fit cleanly into either definition.

From Wikipedia:

> In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that specifically has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.

I am pretty sure you can get BTC from any exchange and sell it on any other exchange. Whereas, with stocks, you generally cannot as a retail investor.

That is, I suppose, what makes crypto a commodity at its core.