DC Federal Court: Bitcoin Is Money
Bitcoin declared money in a federal court in Washington DC today:
Bitcoin Is a Form of Money in DC, Federal Court Rules
In the case of United States v. Harmon, Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell wrote that money is “commonly means a medium of exchange, method of payment, or store of value.”
“Bitcoin is these things,” Judge Howell added.
Defining bitcoin as money was integral to the court’s decision to not dismiss criminal charges against Larry Harmon, the operator of an unlicensed bitcoin trading platform, for laundering money under federal law.
The court’s comments mean that bitcoin “is treated as money in the context of money transmission licensing in D.C., nothing more,” said Neeraj Agrawal, director of communications at Coin Center, a cryptocurrency public policy think tank.
Link to body of text/article: https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-is-a-form-of-money-d-c-federal-court-rules-bloomberg