[daraul]

Calling Bitcoin a currency, and therefore allowing that it can be regulated, is an important factor in whether the government can care about it at all.

If they decided that it wasn't a currency and had no value, the case against the Bitcoin Savings and Trust founder would go nowhere. This decision cuts both ways. Without recognizing it as having value, there'd be no fraud to charge and if you were defrauded, no remedy available.

[Dylan16807]

It doesn't have to be a currency to have value. Defrauding people with baseball cards is illegal.

[julespitt]

Baseball Cards is a good example. I think that different Federal, State and Local agencies should prosecute such things.

Meanwhile, the SEC has far bigger fish to fry, as it were.

[julespitt]

Saying it's not a currency is not the same as saying it has no value.

IIRC, most definitions provided by Federal Law designate that currency or money is by definition minted by sovereign governments.