The CFTC first determined that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are properly defined as “commodities” under the CEA in 2015 in an enforcement action, In the Matter of: Coinflip, Inc., d/b/a Derivabit, and Francisco Riordan, CFTC Docket No. 15-29. In its settlement order, the CFTC stated that individuals who had created a platform for the purchase and sale of Bitcoin options were in fact operating a facility for the trading or processing of swaps without being registered as a swap execution facility or designated contract market. In doing so, the CFTC applied the broad definition of commodity as laid out in the CEA and found that the scope of that definition included Bitcoin: “The definition of a “commodity” is broad […] Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are encompassed in the definition and properly defined as commodities.”