January 2019
Beginner to intermediate
372 pages
11h 17m
English
Content preview from Foundations of Blockchain
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Bitfinex
In August 2016, around 120,000 bitcoins were stolen from Bitfinex wallets. Bitfinex reduced the bitcoin funds of all their customers by 36%, including the customers whose wallets were not compromised. Newly minted BFX tokens were deposited in customers' accounts in proportion to their losses. Since these tokens did not have any intrinsic value in any other exchanges, they promised to buy back these distributed tokens eventually.
Bitfinex is related to a controversial cryptocurrency token called Tether, which is traded with the ticker symbol USDT. Tether claims to own a US dollar for every Tether token issued. Tether is popular due to its fixed value, which facilitates smooth transactions between exchanges.