Bitfinex, the world’s 7th largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has entered the world of traditional finance by launching a new exchange called Bitfinex Securities the will allow the trade of tokenized securities.
According to an announcement on Monday, September 6th, Bitfinex Securities is a regulated investment exchange based in in Astana, Kazakhstan, and is regulated by the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) Authority.
The exchange will allow the trade of blockchain-based versions of traditional investment products like equities, bonds, and investment funds. The announcement reads:
“The Bitfinex Securities platform is designed to facilitate the raising of capital for issuers seeking to have their tokenized securities publicly traded through an easily accessible “admission to trading” process. This meaningful step for the industry will widen access to a variety of innovative financial products, including notably blockchain-based equities and bonds, along with investment funds.”
Bitfinex Securities exchange will allow small and medium-sized companies to list their tokenized investment products like equities, bonds, or funds and raise capital. Bitfinex customer who want to diversify their portfolio can then invest in and trade these tokenized securities. In this way, Bitfinex Securities will allow small private companies to go public through a tokenized issue.
The exchange is regulated by the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) of Kazakhstan but currently has a conditional investment exchange license from the authority. Under this conditional license, Bitfinex Securities has to limit the amount of capital raises at $15 million and the maximum number of customers at 1,000. Once the full license is granted, these limits will be increased.
However, Bitfinex Securities platform is not available to everyone. Its services will not available to residents of the US, Canada, Switzerland, Venezuela, Austria, and Italy. Furthermore, only KYC-approved customers will be able to use the platform.
Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino will serve the same role on Bitfinex Securities. He, about the new investment exchange, commented:
“As a pioneer in blockchain-based securities, we aim to be the most liquid exchange of its kind in the world. Bitfinex Securities Ltd. provides a regulated platform serving small and medium-cap companies that are currently underserved by existing, inefficient capital markets.”
Bitfinex is currently the 7th largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. However, not everything about Bitfinex is shining. As Crypto Economy reported, in February 2021, Bitfinex and Tether were to shutdown their operations in New York after a settling a legal battle that blamed that both crypto platform covered up about $850 million in losses around the globe and deceived the market by overstating reserves.
