| I’m not a lawyer but work in the industry. This is a slightly incorrect interpretation. Not all financial instruments are securities. Financial instruments are legal contracts between an issuer and one or more holders + other parties. If you own any stock in a company, you don’t own part of that company… what you own is a portion of a legal contract that defines what rights you have as a shareholder and what obligations the issuer has. Currency isn’t a commodity. It’s treated as a commodity because they shares characteristics - you can buy and sell them over FX market. It’s a bit of an oddity because its value isn’t solely based on supply and demand, but stability and existence of a central authority controlling its supply. (Opinion) Bitcoin, on the other hand, is a virtual Commodity. It is not recognized as a currency. Similarly, gold is a commodity but not a currency, though it does have a place as a non-standard currency in ISO-4217. Commodities can be hedged against (oil futures) through derivative products. Those are formalized through a legal contract. Your notion of a financial instrument doesn’t cover the fact that it is the legal contract involving money that makes it an instrument. But as others have pointed out that’s not why the SEC is suing. |