US court found Bitcoin currency

The fact that Bitcoins are unregulated virtual money does not exempt them from subordinating to US financial law. According to The Verge, this is stated in the decision of the US federal district court in the case of Trendon Shayvers, who is accused of organizing a financial pyramid using bitcoins.

Shavers claimed that the court did not have jurisdiction to decide on Bitcoin offenses under existing securities laws. According to the accused, “no money passed from hand to hand to another owner” - only Bitcoins, which, he argued, are not currency.

Judge Amos Mazzant disagreed with Shavers. “Obviously, bitcoins can be used as money,” he wrote in conclusion ( PDF ). “They can be used to buy goods and pay for services, and, as Shavers has stated, to pay for living expenses.”
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Although there are not so many places where you can pay for goods with Bitcoins, they can be exchanged like any other currency. “Thus, Bitcoin is a currency or a form of money, and investors who wanted to invest [in the company of Shavers Bitcoin Savings & Trust] invested money,” the judge said.

This is not the first decision to actually accept Bitcoin as currency. Earlier this year, the US Treasury Department called Bitcoin exchanges "financial institutions" that have "the same obligations as any financial services." A California court later tried to close the Bitcoin Foundation on the grounds that it was engaged in an unlicensed money transfer business.