By
Chimamanda U. Martha
May 13th, 2024
Bitfinex presents a 5x leverage for trading of its XAUT gold-backed stablecoin against the U.S. dollar, Tether and Bitcoin.
Traders of Bitfinex got the ability to trade the stablecoin XAUT with a maximum of 5x leverage. Bitfinex also pumps up BTC/USD margin trading pair to the same maximum.
Last week Bitfinex presented a new stablecoin Tether Gold. It is backed by the gold bars hidden in the unknown Swiss vault. Tether claimed that they have ‘direct access’ to the vault. The margin trading option as announced on Tuesday, against the U.S. dollar, Tether and BTC. The initial equity can be 20%.
Margin trading will allow the customers to use the platform’s funds for their bets. Some crypto platforms like margin trading, and some avoid. Paolo Ardoino, CTO Bitfinex, said that the market is experiencing a growing demand for hedging assets such as gold. And the gold-backed stablecoin is something that allows people from different parts of the planet to buy gold.
Tether Gold consists of tokens each representing one troy ounce of gold in a London Good Delivery set of gold bars. The XAUT holders can now hold gold by not holding gold, which is a fantastic logical trick, and possibly a security measure.
Sebastian Sinclair from Coindesk claims that Tether spokesperson refuses to answer questions about possible audit:
“Bitfinex, through a spokesperson, declined to say whether the gold held in storage would be audited and those audits be made available.”
Nobody Seen the Swiss Vault Tether Founders Talk about
Bitstamp cannot distribute BTG and BSV among its clients, yet allow withdrawal in golden bars for clients from the EU. Bitfinex represents a total lack of proves they have gold at all. They may put their reputation to prove that they have gold. However, their reputation is not perfect, considering the NYOAG case and many allegations regarding Bitcoin single whale price manipulations in 2017.
At the beginning of 2018, a bunch of journalists started digging out interesting facts concerning the shady inside picture of Bitfinex. Then the NYOAGjoined investigations, Bitfinex then claimed that allegations against them are baseless and mercenary.
However, recently a cryptocurrency legend Andreas Antonopoulos, who is famous for his speeches and refusal to take bribes, claimed that allegations by Leibowitz group against Bitfinex have weight.
Usually, cryptocurrency startups seeking for the transparency conclude audit without asking them about it. For example, the Gemini exchange has recently completed a second-level audit of its platform.