Bitfinex Crypto Exchange to Debut New Exchange Utility Token

Major cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has unveiled its exchange utility token UNUS SED LEO, in a press release on May 17.

The token will be useable for a variety of exchange-based activities and will begin trading on Bitfinex on May 20 against tether (USDT), bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), U.S. dollars and EOS pairs.

The whitepaper for the project, published on May 10, describes LEO as “a utility token at the heart of the iFinex ecosystem.” iFinex is the parent company of Bitfinex. iFinex purports that it provides a stronger and more independent infrastructure, having migrated from Amazon Web Services to a self-designed data center.

Bitfinex reportedly raised 1 billion tether (USDT) worth of U.S. dollars, bitcoin and tether for the token during its initial exchange offering.

As recently reported by Cointelegraph, the New York Supreme Court recently allowed Bitfinex and associated stablecoin project Tether to continue business during proceedings brought against it by the New York Attorney General (NYAG).

The NYAG originally claimed that Bitfinex lost $850 million and subsequently used funds from Tether to secretly cover the loss. Bitfinex responded to the allegations, saying the NYAG claims were inaccurate. The exchange said it would fight the case in court:

“And rest assured that we will vigorously challenge the false assertions made by the New York Attorney General’s office in their filing… In particular, we want to assure you that the allegation that we have ‘lost’ $850 million is categorically false.”