The US crypto business is having an identity crisis, which could become an existential one. Are cryptocurrencies commodities, like gold and pork bellies? Or securities, like stocks and futures? The Securities and Exchange Commission, America’s top financial regulator, is so convinced that cryptocurrencies are the latter that it’s suing one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, Coinbase, for breaking securities laws. The SEC has instigated an aggressive campaign of “regulation by enforcement,” going after companies for all kinds of alleged violations and insisting that they register with the agency—something crypto businesses say is all but impossible.
But another regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has also sued one of the
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