On Tuesday, the Bitfinex exchange stated that it is allowing all users that have passed the KYC procedures to start depositing USD, GBP and a few other fiat currencies on their accounts. Fiat deposits had been suspended for slightly less than a week.
New “banking solution”
With the new scheme, eligible traders can conduct fiat deposits but first they need to choose an exact amount and the currency they plan to top their balance with. During two days, Bitfinex will notify the user whether their transaction is approved or not and will send banking details to conduct the operation.
The Bitfinex management team believes that the new system will allow the exchange to be stronger in the face of “possible attacks of competitors”. What they meant by possible attacks was not clarified.
Bitfinex and Tether
Rumours have it that Bitfinex and the Tether platform, the emitter of the USDT coin, operate under the same management team. Tether has been in trouble for the past several days, dropping below the USD rate to which the coin is supposed to be pegged. As for Bitfinex, the team has never revealed the true nature of its connection with Tether.
Nevertheless, Bitfinex is reportedly insisting that its users do not share their banking details with anyone beyond their financial institutions to prevent “possible damage to the entire token ecosystem”.
The message that Bitfinex is sending to its customers goes:
“This banking information is being provided to you for purposes of contributing good faith funding to your account on Bitfinex…. This banking information is commercially sensitive and confidential. You should be very careful with this information. You are asked to keep this information to yourself and to not share it except with your financial institution. Divulging this information could damage not just yourself and Bitfinex, but the entire digital token ecosystem. Accordingly, you are cautioned that there may be serious negative effects associated with this information becoming public.”
