Law360, New York (October 23, 2015, 12:50 PM EDT) -- In another move reflecting its focus on the regulation of trading in Bitcoin and other virtual currencies, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Sept. 24, 2015, brought and simultaneously settled charges against TeraExchange LLC, a provisionally registered Bitcoin swap execution facility (known as an "SEF").[1] The charges against Tera, as set forth in the CFTC's accompanying order (the "Tera order"), stem from a pair of nondeliverable forward contracts executed on October 8, 2014, which constituted "wash trading" and "prearranged trading" in violation of the Commodity Exchange Act (the "CEA").   The Tera order comes one week after the CFTC issued an order regarding Coinflip Inc. and its founder and CEO (the "Coinflip order")[2] in which the CFTC presented — for the first time — its conclusion that Bitcoin and other virtual currencies are encompassed within the CFTC's broad definition of "commodities."[3] The San Francisco-based Coinflip, through its online trading facility named "Derivabit," offered an exchange on which options on Bitcoin were traded without being appropriately registered as an SEF or a designated contract market, in violation of CFTC rules and regulations....