04 Aug How much can be achieved in six months? At Bitfinex, the answer is “ LOTS!”
“It’s not what you look at that matters; it’s what you see.” – Henry David Thoreau
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. The world’s economy is spiralling downwards as governments struggle, industries shrink, and many businesses collapse due to the global pandemic and humanitarian crisis.
But, when people see the hole, we see the whole doughnut. What everyone sees as a debacle, Bitfinex sees as an opportunity. The chaos has challenged many people on what they’ve believed all along, which we see as the perfect opportunity to introduce them to the many possibilities of cryptocurrency.
Despite the ongoing crisis, Bitfinex has remained focused on the mission to build a transparent and scalable infrastructure of innovative financial products accessible to everyone, regardless of their level of expertise or experience. In line with our mission, we’ve been working hard to deliver products and features for the benefits of our users, the cryptocurrency community at large, and those who are not yet familiar with the cryptocurrency industry, as mentioned above.
Here are the highlights of what we’ve done so far this year:
Top 10 updates you can’t miss
1-Credit and debit card payment support
Bitfinex introduced new payment options – credit and debit cards payment – giving access to cryptocurrency to a broader audience.
2-Sub-accounts
Trying different trading strategies can be trialled with ease with Bitfinex’s sub-account feature.
3-Staking program
We introduced our staking program and made our first staking rewards payment worth of $100K within less than a month after its launch. We also published educational content to help our community get to know our new service better.
4-Bitfinex Pulse
We launched our very own news aggregator and social platform to enrich crypto traders’ social trading activity.
5-Paper trading
In response to customers’ demand, Bitfinex launched the Paper Trading feature that gives users the opportunities to learn and upgrade their trading skills and strategies in a safe environment.
6-ZERO fees for USDT/USD pair announced
We introduced zero trading fee promotion for Tether/US Dollar (USDt/USD) pair to reward our active and loyal customers.
7-The Honey Framework v.3.1.1 released
The latest version of the Honey Framework is equipped with new functionalities that will improve strategy creation experience. You can find out more about the Honey Framework on its new website.
8-Bitfinex Reporting Tool has got a new look with more capabilities
We redesigned Bitfinex Reporting Framework to make it easier for traders to track their trading performance.
9-More UNUS SED LEO benefits introduced
UNUS SED LEO holders will enjoy a new discount scheme based on the calculated amount across master and sub-accounts.
10-Bitfinex’s website redesigned
We revamped our website to give the best user and trading experience and introduced the colour blind-friendly theme on Bitfinex mobile app.
New listings, futures trading and margin trading leverages
Tether Gold (XAU₮) listing and margin trading launched
Bitfinex listed Tether Gold (XAU₮), giving users and the crypto community access to trade the gold-backed stablecoin, even with leverage.
Margin trading’s maximum leverage increased
Margin trading for several cryptocurrency pairs updated
- Tezos: higher maximum leverage of 3.3x and lower initial equity of 30%.
- Ethereum: higher maximum leverage of 5x and lower initial equity of 20%.
- EOS: higher maximum leverage of 5x and lower initial equity of 20%.
- Bitcoin: higher maximum leverage of 5x.
- XRP: higher maximum leverage of 5x.
- Litecoin: higher maximum leverage of 5x.
- Cosmos: maximum leverage of 2x, initial equity of 50% and a maintenance margin of 20%.
- Algorand: maximum leverage of 2x, initial equity of 50% and maintenance margin of 25%
- FTX token: maximum leverage of 1.66x, initial equity of 60% and maintenance margin of 30%.
- Futures trading for Tether Gold/Tether pair launched
Providing more access to the gold-pegged digital asset, Tether Gold, futures trading for XAUTF0/USTF0 is available on Bitfinex Derivatives*.
Tether on Algorand on Bitfinex
Bitfinex users can deposit and withdraw USDt using Algorand transport protocol on Bitfinex.
New token listing mechanism introduced
Bitfinex introduced a new token listing form to streamline the token listing application process and to ensure its fairness.
Milestones
Bitfinex Affiliate program’s distributed fees
More than USD 500K equivalent of fees have been distributed to affiliates.
Bitfinex Lightning Network bigger capacity and new channels
Bitfinex LN capacity is increasing and reaching a new milestone as the 5th biggest capacity.
We upgraded our Lightning capacity to serve our users’ needs better. We also opened 65 new Lightning channels with our users and added more than 500 BTC, which brought Bitfinex’s total Lightning capacity to over 71 BTC.
Bitfinex onboarded crypto hedge fund, Fulgur Alpha
Bitfinex onboarded Fulgur Alpha, a $280 million crypto hedge fund to its platform, which cemented Bitfinex as the go-to venue for major crypto funds, market makers and arbitrageurs.
More than $2 billion 24-hour trading volume
When the crypto market crashed, Bitfinex smoothly handled $2 billion of trading volume within 24 hours.
Bitfinex’s institutional-grade custody solution launched
Bitfinex launched a post-trade service for institutional investors, in collaboration with Koine.
20M of UNUS SED LEO tokens burned
We hit the first 20M UNUS SED LEO tokens burned.
Bitfinex’s newly launched staking program’s accomplishments
US$ 130M worth of tokens being staked on Bitfinex’s staking program only within a month after its launch.
Bitfinex Pulse hit 5,000 users
Only within a month after its launch, Bitfinex Pulse has welcomed 5,000 traders.
Shimmer, a proprietary surveillance tool launched
Bitfinex launched Shimmer that helps detect potentially improper trading activities as well as combat abusive practices, such as money laundering.
Competitions, giveaways and more user benefits
Bitfinex-Chiliz trading competition
Bitfinex threw a trading competition, in collaboration with Chiliz (CHZ), giving users the opportunities to showcase their trading skills and win the soccer ball signed by Juventus players.
Bitfinex threw the first merchandise giveaway
We threw a merchandise giveaway in response to the community’s demands of Bitfinex’s merchandise.
Bitfinex celebrated the Bitcoin Pizza day
We threw the “Bitcoin Pizza Day, Bitcoin Pizza Yay” competition to celebrate Bitcoin’s first commercial transaction.
First UNUS SED LEO burnday anniversary celebration
Bitfinex celebrated the first anniversary of UNUS SED LEO burnday by throwing the “Win and trade like a LION” competition.
Santiment 30 days free trial for Bitfinex users
In collaboration with Santiment, Bitfinex users get an exclusive offer of 30 days free trial of Santiment’s data, where they can get a 360 degrees overview of the crypto market and invaluable insights
Educational content and statement
The Lightning Series
The Lightning Series explained everything about the Lightning Network.
Bitfinex supports institutional investors joining the crypto space
Bitfinex’s CTO, Paolo Ardoino talked about the company’s readiness in serving and supporting institutional investors taking up the crypto market.
How to get the most out of the Bitfinex platform
All our features are built with the users’ interest in mind, so we want them to know how to utilize them.
Bitfinex Report Framework setup
Bitfinex course on ODEM.
The various derivatives of the crypto ecosystem
We talked about the various derivatives products in the crypto ecosystem to educate our users.
Bitcoin Halving series
Bitfinex joined the crypto community in celebrating Bitcoin’s 3rd halving by publishing an educational series around one of the most anticipated events in the crypto space.
How to get the most out of your Bitfinex Pulse account
The content showed traders how to get started and get the most out of Bitfinex Pulse.
And we’re just getting started! It’s been a great year so far and as we journey through the second half of the year, we know it will get even better.
If you don’t have an account with Bitfinex you can get started by clicking the button below. Why not try out our new Paper Trading feature giving you the ability to test out all the powerful features inside of a secure trading environment with a test balance.
Here’s to finishing the year strong 🍻