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Russia's Ministry of Finance has developed a new version of its proposed law that would both outlaw and apply criminal penalties for bitcoin use.

By Nick Carey

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Caterpillar Inc's suppliers were feeling the pain of slumping sales at the world's largest mining and construction equipment maker long before it announced an extensive cost-cutting program.

J-TEC Chief Executive Officer Gary Roling said Peoria, Illinois-based Caterpillar, his single largest customer, had recently pushed back a big order due this month to December.

"We’ve been selling to Caterpillar for a long, long time, and this year will likely be the lowest year for sales we’ve ever had," said Roling, whose company makes tools to measure the flow of fuel, exhaust and other gases.

Combined with declining orders for a defense-related project, total sales are down 75 percent at J-TEC. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, company's workforce has fallen to 10 from 25 and is on a four-day week.

J-TEC is seeking new business in other sectors to boost sales.

"Our hope is that things will start to get better in the first half of 2016," Roling said. "But we have no visibility, and based on (Caterpillar's) news, a recovery could be some way off."

J-TEC is not alone. The problems at Caterpillar have rippled through its supplier base and will probably worsen. On Thursday, the equipment maker forecast sales declines for 2015 and 2016 and announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs.

At Elk Grove Village, Illinois-based Acme Industries, which makes transmission parts for Caterpillar and rival Komatsu Ltd <6301.T>, the sales drop has come at a time when its customers in the oil industry are also suffering.

Just last summer, the company was on a hiring spree and manufacturing around the clock. But owner Warren Young said it had cut staff to 200 from 240 as sales to Caterpillar and Komatsu have fallen 50 percent, dragging Acme's total down 10 percent to 20 percent.

"When a downturn hits a couple of your businesses at the same time, it leaves you fewer places to hide," Young said.

Like J-TEC, Acme executives are "out pounding the streets" for new business.

Other, larger Caterpillar suppliers like Tenneco Inc and Dana Corp did not return calls seeking comment.

But Mike Schroeder, joint owner of DuPage Precision Products of Aurora, Illinois, summed up the situation for the diesel engine component maker, which supplies Caterpillar's mining and construction business.

"Obviously this affects us, our business and our workers," he said, declining to provide details. "Like everybody else, we have to make adjustments."

(Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)

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D.A. Wallach wrote an article nearly a year ago entitled, "Bitcoin for Rockstars: How Cryptocurrency Can Revolutionize The Music Industry." George Howard checks back with D.A., and discusses the current and future state of the music business as it relates to cryptocurrency.

21 Inc grabbed the lion's share of headlines and blog posts this week with an ambitious new product launch.

Only a week after ruling that bitcoin and other digital currencies are commodities, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Thursday that they have settled charges filed against TeraExchange LLC (Tera) for arranging a “non-deliverable forward contract” last October. Neither of the parties entering the trade were looking to profit off of future bitcoin price changes, but rather to test Tera’s network. However, Tera subsequently released a press release that indicated the pre-arranged swap was a real trade, which would violate both the Swap Execution Facility (SEF) Core Principles found in the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations. This was the first charge filed by the CFTC against a bitcoin exchange following last week’s announcement, which gave the […]

The post Digital Currency Derivatives Exchanges Prepare for Regulation after CFTC Bitcoin Ruling appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Only a week after ruling that bitcoin and other digital currencies are commodities, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Thursday that they have settled charges filed against TeraExchange LLC (Tera) for arranging a “non-deliverable forward contract” last October.

Neither of the parties entering the trade were looking to profit off of future bitcoin price changes, but rather to test Tera’s network. However, Tera subsequently released a press release that indicated the pre-arranged swap was a real trade, which would violate both the Swap Execution Facility (SEF) Core Principles found in the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.

This was the first charge filed by the CFTC against a bitcoin exchange following last week’s announcement , which gave the CFTC jurisdiction over online bitcoin exchange and derivative markets.

Other digital currency platforms that offer similar services have prepared for this moment. LedgerX applied for both an SEF and Derivatives Clearing Organization license last year but has received only a temporary SEF registration at this point.

In a statement released September 10th, CEO Paul Chao said, “[LedgerX does] not intend to launch with only [an] SEF license… Only with both SEF and DCO licenses from the CFTC can we clear and physically deliver the underlying commodity, offer an order-book trading venue, and attract institutional traders.”

LedgerX has even contracted Ancoa , a surveillance technology provider in order to identify “manipulative behaviors and suspicious trading practices” on the LedgerX platform, according to a statement released earlier this year.

While this type of regulation might seem counterintuitive, as it forces exchanges to push back release dates, industry players welcome the oversight. In a private interview, Alt-Options co-founder Marco Cuesta conveyed that “[the CFTC’s] regulation does positively impact the bitcoin derivative market, since its purpose is to protect clients and their assets. As regulation for the Bitcoin derivative market becomes more aligned with that of traditional financial markets, there should be wider adoption, which is good for the industry.”

Image via CFTC

The post Digital Currency Derivatives Exchanges Prepare for Regulation after CFTC Bitcoin Ruling appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

What is the general state of the bitcoin ATM industry? CoinDesk takes a look at the data to decipher trends.

CryptoGames, an online gaming site that allows cryptocurrency users to win money, has introduced its fourth game: Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Fortune offers three different games, each with its own theme and its own payout multiplier: Steampunk, Cyber and Festival. The player makes a bet and spins the wheel. Each time a wheel stops to spin, the initial bet multiplies. Multipliers could go from 0 to 3 and are predetermined for each wheel. Three wheels are available to a player right from the start: Steampunk, Cyber or Festival. Each Game Has Its Own Theme The Steampunk Wheel looks like […]

The post CryptoGames: Have Fun And Get Paid With Three Different Games appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

LedgerX, an institutional bitcoin trading and clearing platform, announced this week that Mark Wetjen, the ex-commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Comission (CFTC), will join its board.

Nominated by President Barack Obama in 2011 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as one of the five CFTC commissioners, Wetjen both helped to implement the first trading mandate for certain types of interest rate and credit default swaps and pushed the CFTC to undertake approximately 95 enforcement cases under the Dodd-Frank Act and Commodity Exchange Act.

He also served as the acting chairman and sponsor of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee, which advises the CFTC on issues relating to the “the integrity and competitiveness of U.S. markets and U.S. firms engaged in global business.”

LedgerX already recruited a CFTC Commissioner to their team: James E. Newsome, Ph.D., an Independent Director at LedgerX, served at the CFTC from 2000 until 2004, when he assumed the role of President and CEO of the New York Mercantile Exchange, which was acquired for $11.2 billion in 2008 by the CME Group, the parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

LedgerX applied for both a Swap Execution Facility (SEF) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) license last year with the CFTC but has received only a temporary SEF registration at this point. LedgerX CEO Paul Chou has publicly stated that “only with both SEF and DCO licenses from the CFTC can we clear and physically deliver the underlying commodity, offer an order-book trading venue and attract institutional traders.”

Following last week’s announcement from the CFTC declaring bitcoin a commodity, the Wetjen’s appointment will certainly help LedgerX navigate the CFTC’s SEF and DCO license application process in order to become a sanctioned bitcoin trading and clearing platform.

The post Bitcoin Derivatives Company LedgerX Appoints Ex-CFTC Commissioner Wetjen to Board appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

LedgerX, an institutional bitcoin trading and clearing platform, announced this week that Mark Wetjen, the ex-commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Comission (CFTC), will join its board. Nominated by President Barack Obama in 2011 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate as one of the five CFTC commissioners, Wetjen both helped to implement the first trading mandate for certain types of interest rate and credit default swaps and pushed the CFTC to undertake approximately 95 enforcement cases under the Dodd-Frank Act and Commodity Exchange Act. He also served as the acting chairman and sponsor of the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee, which advises the CFTC on issues relating to the “the integrity and competitiveness of U.S. markets and U.S. firms […]

The post Bitcoin Derivatives Company LedgerX Appoints Ex-CFTC Commissioner Wetjen to Board appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A new entrant in the US bitcoin mining ecosystem is facing an uncertain future after key executives depart amid federal litigation.

The World Economic Forum's recent report that the Bitcoin block chain would be worth 10% of the world's GDP by 2027 did not give solid figures, for starters. But as noted in the report, and elsewhere, the WEF is referring to the overall value stored on the block chain – not to bitcoins themselves, necessarily. The report specifically says, on page 24: Smartcontracts.com provides programmable contracts that do payouts between two parties once certain criteria have been met, without involving a middleman. These contracts are secured in the blockchain as “self-executing contractual states”, which eliminate the risk of relying on […]

The post Bitcoin Price is Not Headed Toward $300,000 appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin block chain infrastructure provider BitFury has announced the construction of a $100 million data center in Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital city. Georgia has been attracting key international technology companies to position itself as an investment destination and the BitFury Group have duly obliged, by investing $100 million in building a data center in the country’s capital of Tbilisi, reports Agenda.de. The 100MW data center will be the second built by the BitFury Group in Georgia after the installation of a 20MW data center in Gori, a city in eastern Georgia. The block chain infrastructure provider and transaction processing company also […]

The post BitFury is Investing $100 Million in a New Bitcoin Mining Farm appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Mike Tyson says he is grateful to be part of the "bitcoin revolution", though he admits he's "no guru" just yet.

Bitcoin payment processing company BitPay is scaling back its business.

Industry news site CoinDesk reports that BitPay has cut staff numbers by as much as 20, just a day after it scrapped its "free and unlimited" bitcoin processing offer for new merchants.

In an email sent to staff and seen by CoinDesk, BitPay CEO Stephen Pair says the decision to cut staffing number was necessary to "reduce costs" and "better align with the pace of growth" in the industry.

Atlanta-based BitPay, which lets businesses accept bitcoin as payment, is one of the most high-profile bitcoin businesses in the US.

The 4-year-old company raised $30 million (£19.2 million) last year from investors including Index Ventures, and works with high-profile companies like Microsoft, PayPal, and Virgin Galactic (Sir Richard Branson is an investor).

BitPay CEO Stephen Pair told Business Insider in June that the company was shifting its business model away from payment processing towards building tools using the technology behind bitcoin, such as accounting and clearing products.

That was because bitcoin wasn't catching on in the way that evangelists had hoped.

Pair told Business Insider: "We keep adding merchants — we're up to over 60,000 now — but they're selling to the same pool of Bitcoin early adopters."

"In the [bitcoin] industry there’s a realisation that yes it’s an incredible technology but it’s going to take a while for it to mature."

We've contacted BitPay for comment on the redundancies and will update when we hear back. You can read the full interview with Stephen Pair here.

BitPay's website says the company is currently hiring, and lists 8 full-time vacancies.

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NOW WATCH: Floyd Mayweather just spent $4.8 million on one of the fastest cars in the world

Much has changed at Circle Internet Financial in the past week. The company was granted the first BitLicense from the state of New York, and since made some changes to the service: Today we took another step toward realizing that goal. Now in the United States, you can send, receive, and hold US dollars in addition to using bitcoin for payments within the Circle app. You can enjoy the benefits of Bitcoin without ever holding or buying bitcoin yourself, and without being exposed to bitcoin price volatility. Even if you prefer to hold US dollars in your Circle account, you gain […]

The post Circle is Distancing Themselves from Bitcoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin press release: Lykke launches a contest for the best software design of a global FX marketplace. The Competition will take place from October 8, 2015 to December 14, 2015. Lykke is moving to build a global marketplace, where all assets and instruments can be traded. We start with FX. The marketplace uses the distributed ledger technology pioneered by Bitcoin and offers immediate settlement and delivery. The Lykke goal is to provide everyone around the globe direct access to the marketplace. The Lykke founders are technology experts with deep experience of the internal mechanics of the global financial market system. […]

The post Software Design Contest for Global FX Marketplace appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

BitPay has reduced the size of its staff in an effort to cut costs, according to an email from CEO Stephen Pair sent to employees today.