Leading cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has announced a new platform ‘Ethfinex’ which will serve as a community and information hub to facilitate Ethereum-based discussion, analysis, and trading.

Bitfinex said that its vision for the new platform is rooted in the major security breach that took place last year, in which 119,756 bitcoins (equivalent to $72 million at the time) were stolen from customer accounts. It took 8 months for the exchange to complete the final round of redemptions to reimburse funds.

“Bitfinex announced the creation and distribution of the BFX token – a debt-backed token designed to represent users stolen equity – in a novel attempt to reimburse stolen funds”, it said in an online post. “On April 3rd, 8 months after the security breach, Bitfinex announced the systematic redemption of 100% of all outstanding BFX tokens, essentially reimbursing lost funds.”

Touting the BFX token as a “powerful lesson in the capacity of exchange decentralization, it Bitfinex said that Ethfinex will pioneer a “hybrid decentralised architecture”, which would allow decentralised exchanges to plug into it and trade with its customers, as well as each other, it explained:

“Spun out of Bitfinex, Ethfinex brings with it the vision of a customer-centric and highly liquid digital asset exchange platform. Ethfinex will be a hybrid community and information hub for developers, traders and enthusiasts alike, designed to facilitate discussion, development and trading in the ethereum ecosystem."

In addition, Ethfinex would also act as an experimentation zone for emerging decentralised exchange protocols, provide feedback, and allow them to test and learn.

The Nectar Token

Bitfinex has announced a new token to incentivise liquidity and reward loyal customers of Ethfinex. Similar to loyalty points, the Nectar Token would be given for free to token market makers in proportion to the volume of trades they participate in on the exchange, the website said.

“Owners of the tokens will be able to use them to claim loyalty rewards from the exchange, and advise on the future governance of Ethfinex. Initially the tokens will be majority owned by Ethfinex, but gradually as more tokens are issued the ownership of them will therefore become decentralised so that our customers will have a stake in Ethfinex”, it added.

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