06 Nov Bitfinex Proudly Celebrates 11 Years of Innovation and Management in Bitcoin
Right now we’ll check out Bitfinex’s decade-plus journey shaping the way forward for a parallel Bitcoin-based monetary system, accessible to all. Bitfinex observes its eleventh yr in operation, a outstanding interval characterised by sustained innovation and authoritative affect throughout the realms of Bitcoin, blockchain, and P2P applied sciences.
Eleven Years in Bitcoin Can Appear Like a Lifetime
On November sixth, 2023, Bitfinex is joyful to rejoice our eleventh anniversary, marking over a decade of steady innovation and management within the Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and P2P areas. Since our founding in 2012, we’ve been on the forefront of advancing digital currencies, contributing to each the technological underpinnings of the ecosystem and stimulating group growth. Leveraging the transformative capabilities of Bitcoin, Bitfinex goals to determine a parallel peer-to-peer monetary system that prioritises freedom and accessibility for people throughout the globe, whereas performing as an alternative choice to legacy finance.
The title “Bitfinex” is a portmanteau of three pivotal ideas, Bitcoin, Finance, and Change, that function the cornerstones of our id and mission. The title not solely encapsulates our platform’s major perform as a high-volume buying and selling alternate for Bitcoin and different digital belongings but additionally emphasises our broader function within the ever-evolving panorama of economic companies.
By fusing these three ideas, Bitfinex alerts our dedication to be greater than only a cryptocurrency alternate; we goal to be a complete parallel monetary platform that bridges conventional finance with the progressive world of Bitcoin and blockchain expertise. The title thus embodies our dedication to pushing the boundaries of what’s potential within the realm of digital finance, serving as a continuing reminder of our foundational ideas and impressive targets.
Through the years, Bitfinex has remained dedicated to our imaginative and prescient of selling monetary freedom and inclusion via cutting-edge companies, merchandise, and academic initiatives, documented for posterity via our Freedom Manifesto. Our eleventh anniversary gives an necessary alternative to replicate on our achievements and units the stage for continued development and optimistic affect within the ever-evolving panorama of digital belongings and P2P applied sciences created to boost private and monetary freedom.
A Stroll Down Reminiscence Lane: A Take a look at Some Essential Milestones in Our Journey
November 2012 – Our Founding
Bitfinex emerged as one of many pioneering platforms particularly engineered for cryptocurrency buying and selling, born November sixth, 2012. Based by Raphael Nicolle, an IT technician from France who had beforehand labored on a venture known as Bitcoinica, Bitfinex initially launched as a peer-to-peer (P2P) margin lending platform completely for Bitcoin. We rapidly diversified as a consequence of buyer demand, including help for a number of cryptocurrencies and increasing our suite of companies. We started providing an array of buying and selling choices together with high-volume spot buying and selling, margin buying and selling, peer-to-peer lending (margin funding), over-the-counter (OTC) markets, and derivatives buying and selling. From the outset, Bitfinex has positioned itself as an institutional-grade hub for digital asset buying and selling, designed to cater to a wide selection of buying and selling wants for customers globally.
Might 2013 – Litecoin is Added to the Platform
Within the early days of Bitcoin, we started to see the emergence of the very first era of altcoins. Bitfinex made a discerning alternative by including Litecoin to our buying and selling platform, as one of many first non-Bitcoin digital belongings. Recognizing Litecoin’s enduring potential and stability in distinction to different risky altcoins of the time, Bitfinex provided its clients a chance to commerce a cryptocurrency with confirmed endurance. This addition not solely broadened the portfolio choices for Bitfinex’s buyer base, but additionally underscored our dedication to facilitating commerce in belongings with long-term viability and credibility.
January 2015 – Tether is Added to the Platform, Paving the Approach for Stablecoins
In January 2015, Bitfinex took a strategic step by including USD Tether (USDt) to our platform, recognizing the rising demand for stablecoins within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. This history-making transfer offered merchants with a much-needed protected haven throughout market volatility, permitting them to simply transition from risky belongings like Bitcoin to a steady forex pegged to the US greenback. It additionally allowed exchanges to settle trades denominated in USD at a time when banks weren’t providing monetary companies to the business as a complete. The combination of Tether not solely underscored Bitfinex’s forward-thinking strategy but additionally served as a catalyst for the broader adoption of stablecoins as a brand new kind of asset class within the crypto buying and selling group. Tether was the primary stablecoin, which paved the way in which for numerous others, launched within the ensuing years.
March 2016 – Ether is added to the Platform, Paving the Approach for ERC-20 Tokens
In March 2016, Bitfinex took a big step by including Ether, a transfer that had far-reaching implications for its buyer base and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. Ether is the primary token of Ethereum, which gives progressive capabilities for good contracts and decentralised purposes (DApps), presenting a brand-new frontier for blockchain expertise. By incorporating Ether into our numerous set of choices, Bitfinex not solely catered to rising buyer demand but additionally demonstrated our dedication to staying on the forefront of blockchain innovation.
The combination of Ether was notably noteworthy as a result of it opened the doorways for the buying and selling and funding of numerous ERC-20 tokens. The ERC-20 normal has been the inspiration for a lot of tokens that went on to considerably affect the world of Decentralised Finance (DeFi). These tokens have change into pivotal in all the pieces from decentralised exchanges (DEXs) to lending platforms and stablecoins. By providing Ether, Bitfinex successfully gave its clients a gateway to this burgeoning world of potentialities, reinforcing its function as a frontrunner in digital asset buying and selling. The transfer additional solidified Bitfinex’s repute for embracing promising applied sciences and providing numerous, strong buying and selling alternatives to its world group.
August 2016 – The Notorious Bitfinex Hack: How we Survived One in all Our Hardest Challenges
In August 2016, Bitfinex suffered a big cybersecurity breach that led to the theft of just about 120,000 bitcoins, an occasion that might have simply spelt doom for a lot of digital asset buying and selling platforms. Whereas the crypto-community watched with bated breath, Bitfinex took speedy motion. In an unprecedented and progressive manoeuvre, we issued BFX tokens to all affected clients at a ratio of 1 BFX token for each greenback stolen. We provided clients a alternative: they might redeem every BFX token for $1 per token or alternate every BFX token, valued at $1 per token, for frequent shares of iFinex capital inventory. Remarkably, by April 3, 2017—simply eight months following the safety incident—Bitfinex efficiently redeemed these tokens, totally compensating clients and thereby restoring confidence within the alternate.
This resilience stood in sharp distinction to the destiny of many modern exchanges that have been obliterated by hacks, fraud, or mismanagement. Authorities finally captured the hackers accountable for the Bitfinex breach and recovered part of the stolen belongings, an necessary chapter in our firm’s historical past. By not simply surviving, however thriving, after such a serious setback, Bitfinex showcased its dedication to buyer safety and operational integrity, setting itself aside as an organization with an moral administration group that actually cares about its clients. It additionally served as a case research in efficient disaster administration throughout the risky panorama of cryptocurrency buying and selling.
October 2017 – Buying and selling the Fork Wars with the B2X “Chain Cut up” Token
In the course of the turbulent interval of Bitcoin’s block measurement debates and subsequent forks, Bitfinex adopted a impartial stance, making certain that our platform wouldn’t change into a battleground for competing ideologies. Whereas not taking sides, Bitfinex did introduce the B2X token to provide our merchants the liberty to commerce the occasion of the Bitcoin SegWit2x fork.
By providing the “chain break up” tokens, we offered a mechanism for patrons to hedge towards the potential dangers and likewise speculate on the end result of the fork. The B2X token allowed clients to separate their Bitcoin holdings into distinct belongings that may very well be traded individually, thus capturing the market’s evaluation of the relative worth of the forked chains. This strategy enabled Bitfinex to keep up our dedication to buyer alternative and market integrity whereas steering away from the contentious politics that enveloped the Bitcoin group on the time.
Might 2019 – UNUS SED LEO (LEO) Token Launched
Bitfinex launched UNUS SED LEO, our personal utility token, in 2019. The token was met with appreciable curiosity and swiftly offered out throughout its preliminary personal sale, demonstrating each the boldness clients have in Bitfinex and the perceived utility of the token itself. UNUS SED LEO serves a number of capabilities throughout the Bitfinex ecosystem, together with providing buying and selling payment reductions and serving as a key part in a spread of purposes and companies. Along with this, the token acts as a pivotal component in a wide range of Bitfinex purposes and companies, which vary from enhancing liquidity to collaborating in token gross sales hosted on the platform.
July 2019 – Algorithmic Buying and selling Platform Honey Framework Launches
The launch of Bitfinex’s Honey Framework was a big leap ahead in offering superior buying and selling instruments to the cryptocurrency group. This algorithmic buying and selling framework permits merchants to construct customised buying and selling methods with a excessive diploma of sophistication, thereby enabling them to maximise their buying and selling effectivity. The Honey Framework seamlessly integrates with Bitfinex’s present platform, offering a strong set of options for market evaluation, order execution, and danger administration. By providing such an intricate toolset, Bitfinex is actively levelling the enjoying subject between retail and institutional merchants.
April 2020 – Bitfinex Gentle Staking Service Launches
Bitfinex entered the staking area with its comfortable staking service, permitting Bitfinex clients to earn rewards by merely holding and staking sure forms of cryptocurrencies immediately via their Bitfinex accounts. This service brings one other layer of economic incentive for the platform’s clients, enhancing the utility and yield-generating capabilities of supported digital belongings.
By taking the complexity out of staking procedures, Bitfinex makes it accessible even for patrons who might not be technologically savvy. The service aligns with Bitfinex’s broader mission to supply a complete and customer-friendly ecosystem for digital belongings, starting from buying and selling to facilitating peripheral use-cases. This provides one other aspect to the platform’s already strong suite of economic instruments and companies, reinforcing its standing as one of the versatile platforms within the business
April 2020 – Bitfinex Pulse Launches to Present a Social Media Community for Merchants
In an effort to foster group interplay and real-time info sharing amongst our customers, Bitfinex launched Bitfinex Pulse, an in-house social media community designed particularly for merchants. Pulse supplies an area the place merchants can focus on market traits, share insights, and maintain an ear to the bottom for rising alternatives or dangers.
Bitfinex Pulse comes as a pure extension of our overarching technique to offer an all-in-one ecosystem for crypto fanatics and professionals alike. By including a social layer to our present array of buying and selling and monetary companies, Bitfinex not solely deepens our stage of buyer engagement however we additionally improve the standard of decision-making via collective intelligence. This progressive characteristic helps solidify Bitfinex’s place as a complete and cutting-edge resolution within the digital asset market.
July 2020 – Lending Professional Revolutionises P2P Margin Lending by way of Automation
In July 2020, Bitfinex launched Lending Professional, a extremely automated, customizable, and superior lending software geared toward elevating the expertise of its clients within the margin funding market. Designed to cater to each particular person and institutional lenders, Lending Professional gives a set of options that automate lending based mostly on predefined standards, thereby optimising the returns on lent belongings. Lending Professional not solely streamlines the lending course of but additionally brings a stage of sophistication usually related to conventional monetary markets, additional bridging the hole between the crypto financial system and mainstream finance.
September 2020 – Bitfinex Borrow Gives Liquidity Options for HODLRs and Traders
Bitfinex launched “Bitfinex Borrow,” a peer-to-peer digital token mortgage portal designed to satisfy the rising demand for cryptocurrency-backed lending. This P2P digital token mortgage portal is greater than only a lending service; it’s an progressive resolution tailor-made to the particular calls for of the fashionable crypto investor.
By way of permitting customers to leverage their present cryptocurrency holdings as collateral, Bitfinex Borrow makes it potential to safe loans in numerous digital and fiat currencies with out liquidating beneficial belongings. One of many standout options of Bitfinex Borrow is its flexibility. Customers have the choice to select from totally different mortgage phrases and rates of interest, offering an added layer of customisation that many conventional monetary establishments fail to supply. This adaptability is particularly essential within the fast-paced, risky world of cryptocurrency markets, the place consumer wants can change quickly.
March 2021 – Bitfinex Pay Launches Offering Infrastructure for Retailers That Wish to Settle for Crypto Funds
Bitfinex launched “Bitfinex Pay” as a service provider fee resolution designed to streamline and simplify cryptocurrency transactions for companies. This providing permits retailers to just accept digital belongings as fee for items and companies, additional bridging the hole between conventional finance and the Bitcoin and crypto financial system. By offering a seamless and safe fee gateway that helps numerous cryptocurrencies, Bitfinex Pay not solely gives companies an opportunity to faucet right into a rising buyer base of crypto fanatics but additionally underscores Bitfinex’s broader goal to facilitate the mass adoption of digital belongings. With this transfer, Bitfinex extends its attain past alternate companies to play a pivotal function in how transactions are literally performed within the fashionable digital financial system.
September 2021 – Bitfinex Securities Launches to Disrupt the Securities Issuance Business
The launch of Bitfinex Securities signifies a groundbreaking second within the realm of economic companies, with the potential to disrupt the standard securities business basically. Working on the intersection of blockchain expertise and conventional finance, this new platform goals to democratise funding by offering a extra accessible, environment friendly, and clear avenue for buying and selling a variety of economic devices. In doing so, Bitfinex Securities challenges the longstanding norms and inefficiencies of legacy techniques by leveraging the inherent advantages of decentralised applied sciences, reminiscent of real-time settlement and decrease transaction prices.
This pioneering initiative displays Bitfinex’s dedication to innovation and its quest to repeatedly provide transformative monetary options to underserved entities and markets. By tapping into the huge, but underexploited, potential of tokenisation for securities buying and selling, Bitfinex Securities may function a catalyst for a seismic shift in how investments are made and managed, thereby redefining the contours of the worldwide monetary panorama.
November 2022 – Bitfinex Launches Freedom Manifesto at Adopting Bitcoin Convention in El Salvador
The revealing of the Bitfinex Freedom Manifesto on the Adopting Bitcoin 2022 convention in El Salvador marks a pivotal second within the crypto business’s historical past. Launched in a rustic that has already made vital strides in adopting digital currencies, the manifesto serves as a philosophical and sensible information that outlines Bitfinex’s dedication to monetary freedom, decentralisation, and empowerment via expertise.
The doc supplies a complete framework by way of a number of key pledges to help the Bitcoin ecosystem, prioritising training and a dedication to freedom, elucidating our imaginative and prescient for a extra open and equitable monetary ecosystem. Its launch in El Salvador, a nation that has boldly built-in Bitcoin into its financial system as authorized tender, amplifies the manifesto’s significance. By launching it at such a outstanding occasion, Bitfinex not solely spoke on to a like-minded viewers but additionally made a robust assertion in regards to the important function of cryptocurrencies in shaping a future geared in the direction of monetary inclusivity and freedom.
February 2023 – Bitfinex Securities Opens Workplace in Astana, Kazakhstan
The institution of a regional workplace for Bitfinex Securities in Astana, Kazakhstan serves as a strategic milestone for the corporate, opening the gateway to a quickly rising market hungry for monetary innovation. Kazakhstan has proven a forward-leaning stance in the direction of blockchain and cryptocurrency applied sciences, making it a really perfect hub for Bitfinex Securities to develop its companies and affect.
The Astana workplace is not going to solely facilitate localised companies but additionally lay the groundwork for partnerships with native monetary establishments and regulatory our bodies. This strategic transfer underscores Bitfinex Securities’ imaginative and prescient of democratising finance on a worldwide scale by making inroads into markets which are ripe for disruption and innovation. Furthermore, organising a regional workplace in Astana can act as a springboard for getting into different Central Asian and Eurasian markets, thereby considerably broadening our attain and affect.
April 2023 – Bitfinex Securities is Granted the First Digital Asset License in El Salvador
The issuance of the first-ever Digital Asset licence in El Salvador to Bitfinex Securities represents a historic milestone for each the corporate and the broader cryptocurrency business. This licensure not solely provides legitimacy to Bitfinex Securities but additionally underlines El Salvador’s dedication to being a pioneer within the adoption of digital belongings. By receiving this licence, Bitfinex Securities features a big aggressive edge, enabling it to function inside a regulated atmosphere in a rustic that has overtly embraced digital forex. It additionally permits the corporate to supply an expanded vary of economic services tailor-made to this rising market. The licensure units the stage for additional developments within the adoption and regulatory recognition of digital belongings.
June 2023 – Bitfinex P2P Launches in Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela
The introduction of Bitfinex’s Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platform represents a big milestone in our ongoing mission to democratise finance, ship monetary inclusion, improve monetary freedom and improve consumer expertise. Our P2P platform permits customers to immediately commerce belongings with each other, bypassing conventional monetary intermediaries, thus selling monetary inclusivity and decreasing transaction prices. By leveraging the ideas of decentralisation and group interplay, Bitfinex P2P seeks to offer a extra equitable and clear buying and selling atmosphere.
P2P buying and selling gives a lifeline in rising economies grappling with weak nationwide currencies and stringent capital controls. Conventional monetary techniques in such international locations typically fail to offer a steady medium for saving or transacting, eroding the buying energy of residents and limiting their potential to have interaction in world commerce. P2P buying and selling platforms provide a method out by facilitating direct asset exchanges between customers, giving entry to a extra steady and doubtlessly appreciating asset class, cryptocurrencies. Not like typical monetary techniques, P2P platforms are largely proof against native financial insurance policies, offering another channel for capital flows each inside and past nationwide borders. In doing so, they empower people to regain management over their monetary futures, bypassing restrictive controls and risky nationwide currencies.
October 2023 – Bitfinex Securities Launches First Tokenised Bond Providing
Bitfinex Securities unveiled its inaugural tokenised bond providing, ALT2611, a big milestone that guarantees to revolutionise capital markets. Issued by Mikro Kapital, a widely known participant within the microfinance sector, this 36-month bond carries a ten% coupon and is denominated in Tether (USDT). With a minimal funding quantity set at 125,000 USDT, ALT2611 is designed to democratise monetary entry, giving traders the chance to accumulate dangers linked to the debt and fairness of microfinance organisations and small monetary establishments.
Bitfinex Securities goals to reshape the way in which capital is raised by offering a deep, liquid marketplace for a wide range of monetary devices, together with blockchain-based bonds, shares, and funding funds. The ALT2611 bond will start buying and selling on the worth of 100 USDT and is predicted to begin distribution inside one week following the completion of the capital increase.
The bond has a three-year maturity interval, and its authorized framework is ruled by the legal guidelines of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Mikro Kapital intends to difficulty a complete of 100,000 securitized tokens for ALT2611, aiming to boost 10 million USDT. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino hailed the launch as “the start of a brand new period for capital raises via deep liquid markets and inventory/bond markets.”
