Law Enforcement Approaches to the Legal Qualification of Cryptocurrency (U.S. Judicial Practice)

Abstract

The article deals with law application approaches of the US courts to the characterization of cryptocurrency. Facts of the cryptocurrency case filed by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission against the ‘Cabbagetech’ Corporation for injunction are analyzed. The court formulated a case-law position according to which cryptocurrency is qualified as a civil turnover object that has the commodity economic and legal characteristics. The legal qualification of cryptocurrency as a commodity and the extension of the economic and legal features and attributes of the commodity to the cryptocurrency allows to structure property risks and to determine the civil law consequences of actions aimed at acquiring proprietary rights to cryptocurrencies. The emphasis on the legal policy of the US public institutions in the field of commodity and finance market security is placed.