Commodity
In United States law, a very broad category of tradable things whose oversight runs mainly through derivatives markets rather than issuer disclosure rules.
The Commodity Exchange Act defines commodity expansively enough to cover goods, articles, and rights in which contracts for future delivery are dealt in, which is why courts have treated bitcoin and some other digital assets as commodities. The practical effect is jurisdictional: futures, options, and swaps on the asset are regulated venues and products, while the underlying spot market is subject mainly to anti-fraud and anti-manipulation authority rather than to routine registration. Borrowing the word from physical markets is misleading in one respect: commodity here does not imply the asset is physical, consumable, or industrially useful, and it carries no view about value. Readers meet the term wherever a dispute turns on which agency writes the rules.
En pratique
Regulated futures on bitcoin have traded on designated contract markets in the United States since 2017, which is a direct consequence of the underlying being treated as a commodity.
Le malentendu courant
That calling a digital asset a commodity means no rules apply, when it mainly changes which regulator and rulebook attach, and fraud and manipulation authority still reaches the spot market.