Bitfinex Comes for Their Share in the IEO Pie

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and its sister company Ethfinex are launching their Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) platform, Tokinex.

According to both companies, the first token sale on Tokinex will be announced on May 23 and will take place on June 13.

“What it means to be an exchange has evolved alongside the maturing crypto market. It has become an entire ecosystem, not just limited to the remit of trading digital assets,” Jean Louis van der Velde, CEO of Bitfinex and Ethfinex, was quoted as saying in the announcement.

They added that qualifying projects are only charged a fee if their sale is successful and are subsequently provided with a dual exchange listing.

To participate in the first offering, users will need to log-in to Tokinex using a new or existing Bitfinex & Ethfinex account and begin the verification process for the first sale from May 23. As it is usual for already existing IEO platforms, investors from the U.S. are not allowed to participate in token sales on Tokinex, also.

With this move, Bitfinex and Ethfinex join other exchanges such as Binance, OKEx, Bittrex and Gate.io which already have their own IEO platforms.

The key difference between IEO and ICO (Initial coin offering) is that both the project developer and the investors facilitate their transactions through a third party – an exchange. It acts as a guarantor and conducts a project due diligence check on the project team. Also, in this case, developers are no longer required to perform KYC (know your customer) verification.

Meanwhile, Bitfinex said recently it raised c. USD 1 billion in a private sale of their LEO token. It started trading on the exchange yesterday, May 20.

Bitfinex and the company’s stablecoin Tether are still embroiled in a complex legal battle with the Attorney General (AG) in New York. The AG has accused the operator of “covering up” loans and “misappropriating” some USD 851 million – in a case that involves a Panamanian company, Crypto Capital.