On Sept. 26, 2018, Judge Rya Zobel, of the United States District Court of Massachusetts, held for the purposes of ruling on a pretrial motion that all crypto or virtual currencies are “commodities,” regardless of whether the actual currency itself is a commodities future, derivative, swap or other contract over which the U.S. Commodity Future Trading Commission (“CFTC”) has jurisdiction. This decision affirms the CFTC’s broad authority to crack down on fraud in the virtual currency industry.