The Internet recently erupted with news reports and law firm legal alerts broadcasting the endorsement by a federal court of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) position that virtual currencies (a/k/a cryptocurrencies) are commodities subject to CFTC oversight pursuant to the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA). However, while it is clear that Bitcoin is a commodity for purposes of CFTC jurisdiction, the same may not be true of other virtual currencies. The CFTC generally has exclusive jurisdiction over commodity derivatives, including futures, options and swaps, but it only has...

On March 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio issued an opinion granting in part and denying in part motions to dismiss the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) action seeking to enforce its assessment of civil penalties against Coaltrain Energy, L.P. (“Coaltrain”), the two co-owners of Coaltrain, and three other individuals (collectively, the “Defendants”). FERC alleges that the Defendants: manipulated the PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. market by placing virtual transactions for the purpose of increasing Coaltrain’s eligibility for Marginal Loss Surplus...