Bitfinex, a leading bitcoin exchange headquartered in Hong Kong announced today they will shortly be redeeming 100% of all currently issued and outstanding BFX tokens. This will be the final redemption of BFX tokens created back in August 2016. After these redemptions, no BFX tokens will remain outstanding; they will all be destroyed.
A combination of factors has led to this seminal moment for Bitfinex, including a dramatic uptick in equity conversions; record operating results in March; and, the decision to reduce its reserves in favor of this opportunity.
Bitfinex said they are exceedingly grateful to all customers and new shareholders for helping get to this point. By the end of this week, the exchange will be sending notes directly to shareholders with more information about what to expect in the coming months.
As for the mechanics of the actual redemptions, Bitfinex will be taking the steps listed below at 20:00:00 UTC today (April 3, 2017).
Most of what follows concerns settling outstanding margin positions, but because BFX tokens are trading so close to their face value, the effects will be quite small. Users who are in margin positions may close them out before settlement, or they may leave them open.
The steps and processes for the final redemptions are as follows:
- Platform-wide, Bitfinex will be pausing withdrawals, wallet movements, margin liquidations, and automatic settlement of negative balances while the settlement process is running (this process is estimated to last approximately 25 min).
Trading in BFX pairs will be halted. - Lending in BFX will be halted.
- All orders for BFX pairs will be canceled.
- All lending orders on BFX will be canceled.
- All margin positions in BFX will be force-claimed, even if users do not have sufficient correct collateral to do this. Accordingly, negative balances may be temporarily created in some cases.
- Active BFX loans will be closed and BFX will be returned to lenders.
- Any negative balances in BFX will be replaced with a negative amount of USD in the same quantity.
- Any positive balances in BFX will be redeemed for $1 per BFX token.
- Thereafter, normal operations will resume.
The Bitfinex team noted:
“Overall we expect the entire process to take approximately 25–35 minutes. Trading in all other pairs will continue throughout this process, with the the temporary inconvenience of not being able to withdraw or move between wallets. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience that this may cause any users. Once again, we are deeply grateful for the patience and trust of our customers and shareholders as we worked towards—and have achieved—full recovery in just eight months. Without the community’s support, Bitfinex could have easily become a footnote in the history of the digital token revolution, instead of a leader and trendsetter. Thank you.”
