Bitcoin falls on reminder that CFTC might regulate it

By Constantine Courcoulas
Bloomberg News
Wednesday, October 18, 2017

Traders waiting for a pullback in bitcoin’s price to rebuild positions in the world's largest cryptocurrency may have the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to thank.

In a primer on the asset class published Tuesday, the agency said virtual "tokens" used in initial coin offerings can come under CFTC oversight, a message that a market averse to scrutiny did not take well.

Bitcoin fell as much as 5.9 percent, its biggest loss in almost a month, to as low as $5,247.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has already said tokens from some ICOs can be securities under its oversight. "There is no inconsistency between the SEC's analysis and the CFTC's determination" from 2015 that virtual currencies are commodities, the CFTC said. ...

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