Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has abandoned the $10,000 minimum equity for opening new accounts.
Bitfinex introduced the minimum threshold requirement during the heights of the crypto trading boom in 2017 when it struggled like other crypto platforms to cope with the number of new registrations.
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At the time, several exchanges temporarily closed down new signups because they could not handle the inflow of new customers. Bitfinex was one of them, but later in January 2018, it applied an activation equity requirement, where new accounts were required to deposit fiat or crypto to achieve minimum account equity of $10,000 equivalent before they could trade.
After activation, however, clients’ account equity was allowed to drop below the required equity threshold without consequence.
Earlier this year, Bitfinex tried to sweeten its offering to institutional investors through a partnership with matching engine technology provider Connamara to create a Financial Information eXchange (FIX) gateway, which was then further enhanced following a similar deal with Market Synergy.
Bitfinex has gone live with new institutional-grade connectivity provided by Swiss-based Market Synergy, which offers trading and security solutions for banks, brokers and hedge funds to trade cryptocurrencies.
Commenting on the news, Bitfinex CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde, said: “We simply could not ignore the increasing level of requests for access to trade on Bitfinex from a wider cohort than our traditional customer base. For the last six months we have been working hard to ready our platform for a new wave of customer accounts and are now in a position to open Bitfinex to a wider audience. By dropping our minimum equity requirement, the only limits are now set by the traders themselves.”
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