The bitcoin was just recognized as an official commodity by the CFTC

From the observation it looks the two parties reached to an amiable settlement as even Francisco Riordan, who represented himself in the case, said he felt the settlement with the CFTC was fair.

CFTC made the ruling to settle charges filed against a Bitcoin exchange that facilitated trading of option contracts on its platform, reports Bloomberg.

This is for the first time that the U.S. derivatives regulators have brought their case against a Bitcoin trading platform. Each of the different organizations classifies bitcoin as property, money and currency respectively. The classification of Bitcoin as a commodity seems unusual, to an extent, because most commodities tie back to the future delivery of a physical good (oil, grains, beef, etc.), Ranta said.

To be more specific, Derivabit was operating for the goal of trading or processing commodity options without first complying with the Regulations set forth by both the CEA and CFTC.

In a press release, the CFTC explained it had “issued an Order filing and simultaneously settling charges …”

A follow-up Bloomberg Business article lists reactions and comments to the CFTC claim from notable members of the Bitcoin community.

“There are so many regulators within the United States , they usually all need extra jurisdiction, which results in a continuing stream of weird rulings. So once they discover a small one-man startup they cannot resist giving themselves work to do – in order that they go in and whack it, particularly in California”, Mike Hearn, a software program developer specializing in Bitcoin stated.

Heard added that he is not terribly surprised and not terribly anxious.

“While there is a lot of excitement surrounding Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, innovation does not excuse those acting in this space from following the same rules applicable to all participants in the commodity derivatives markets”, said Aitan Goelman, the CFTC’s Director of Enforcement.

This might mean a nervous couple of months for other unregistered bitcoin derivatives firms in the USA but also signaled that the cryptocurrency will now come under the CFTC’s scope.

While CFTC calls bitcoin a commodity, other departments like Internal Revenue Services (IRS), Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are not far behind. To bank regulators, it’s a bank.