Few lines in federal commodities law are as strange as the one that carves out onions. Caroline Pham, the former Acting Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has turned that oddity into a policy argument.

Speaking in an interview at Token2049 Singapore , Pham said the Commodity Exchange Act is drafted so broadly that “pretty much everything is a commodity except for onions and movie box office receipts.” Her conclusion follows directly. The CFTC, in her view, does not need Congress to regulate crypto.

Pham now serves as chief legal officer and chief administrative officer at MoonPay. Her remarks come at a moment when that argument is no longer theoretical.

A Definition Built to Stretch

The exclusions Pham describes are written into the statute itself. The definition of “commodity” in the Commodity Exchange Act covers a long list of agricultural goods and then reaches all other goods, articles, services, rights and interests in which futures contracts are or may be dealt.…