A United States District Judge has ruled that bitcoin is money for the purposes of federal law prohibiting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting businesses.

The ruling followed an application by lawyers for Anthony Murgio, one of the operators of the now defunct bitcoin exchange Coin.mx, who argued that he was not liable on a change of running an unlicensed money transmitting business as bitcoin is not considered money under law.

Judge Alison Nathan disagreed, however, noting that bitcoin qualified as the act describes “funds” and not specifically fiat money.

“Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term,” Nathan wrote. “Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment.”

Reuters notes that the judge added that the ruling does not affect any of the other 6 charges Murgio is facing, meaning that in theory the same judge, or a different judge, could find that bitcoin does not count as money in cases against Murgio including money laundering and wire fraud.

Ongoing

The Coin.mx case has been bizarre from the start with its cast of many bit players and various schemes, but the big picture for the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation comes down to links between the operation of Coin.mx and those accused of stealing the information of more than 100 million customers of banks and publishing firms, including a staggering 83 million JP Morgan customers, then using this data to steal funds through various means; Coin.mx is alleged to have been used to launder proceeds from these crimes.

This new ruling about the validity of bitcoin being valid funds under various federal laws makes no difference to the main case going forward but it does notably stand in contrast to a Florida case in July where a judge ruled that at least under State law bitcoin did not count as money.

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