While we knew the Bitfinex Affiliate Program was coming, what no one expected was for it to be 3 tiers.

Bitfinex rose to fame by leading the way for leveraged trading in the cryptocurrency market, offering their users up to 100X on trades, turning a $10 trade into $1000 in value.

However, Bitfinex isn't without controversy, recently they banned US members - which are still found openly discussing how they use the site anyway via proxy or VPN.  But they did lose thousands of traders who were successfully scared off of the platform.

But Bitfinex has proven to be unstoppable thus far, and I wouldn't worry about waking up one day to the site, and your commissions gone.

So, here's how the tiers will work:

- The friend you referred, you earn 18% of their exchange fees.
- People your friend referred, 6% of their exchange fees.
- Friends of friends, 2% of their exchange fees.

Bitfinex isn't an exchange for HODLers - the frequency of trading by users means this could end up being pretty lucrative.

... well, maybe.

There's one potentially huge problem - who doesn't know about Bitfinex at this point? 

But there's always new traders coming into the market, and long term this could still be a win for those who manage to get a couple people to join every week.

Anyone who signs up to Bitfinex can access the affiliate program by clicking the button at the top right of the site.

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Author: Adam Lee 
Asia News Desk

The story has been developing over the last 24hrs, and began with a press release and Fortune publishing the NY Attorney General's claims that Bitfinex used "illicit transactions to mask $850 million in missing funds."

Those illicit transactions, they claim, were in the form of their stablecoin 'Tether', and Bitfinex had dipped into reserves and used those funds to fill in the gaps left by the missing $850 million.

Now, Bitfinex has weighed in - clearly angered by the situation, saying the Attorney General's claims are "riddled with false assertions".

Bitfinex asserts the funds aren't missing at all, they're being withheld, stating that "these Crypto Capital amounts are not lost but have been, in fact, seized and safeguarded. We are and have been actively working to exercise our rights and remedies and get those funds released."

But why would the NY Attorney General do this? They say it's because of the recent probe into cryptocurrency exchanges being conducted by the Attorney General's office, which some say overstepped authority by demanding documents without reasonable suspicion. The probe includes all of the top exchanges, Coinbase, Gemini, bitFlyer, Bitstamp, Kraken, Bittrex, Poloniex, Binance, Tidex, Gate.io, itBit, Huobi, and of course, Bitfinex, which apparently did not hand over all of the data requested.

But who is withholding this massive sum of Bitfinex's funds? They won't say, and expressed frustration that they're being targeted instead of assisted in the quest to get them returned, saying "The New York Attorney General’s office should focus its efforts on trying to aid and support our recovery efforts."

They also insist, customers have nothing to fear, promising that "Bitfinex and Tether are financially strong" and that they are "good corporate citizens and strong supporters of law enforcement."

It's hard to predict how this will end, Bitfinex has repeatedly found themselves at the center of accusations that seem to fade away, never concluding with clear proof of their innocence or guilt.

It appears they've structured their business to be deliberately difficult to track from the outside. That's brought about critics who say those are the actions of a company with dark secrets, and defenders who say it's a smart move to prevent funds being seized in the case of sudden government overreach. 

It's common practice for exchanges with international clients to have funds held around the globe, instead if having to trust all of those governments, it can be easier to trust none of them and try to keep things as under-wraps as possible.

But that's why this time is different - their defense isn't 'we don't release that information to protect funds from being seized' - they're saying 'the funds have been seized'.

This time, they can't withhold the specifics - there's no end that doesn't involve releasing the records in question, or the Attorney General's accusations proven.

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk

Back in August of 2016 Bitfinex fell victim to one of the worst hacks among the more 'mainstream' exchanges when the hackers got away with stealing a total of 120,000 BTC.

Today the US Government returned (almost) 28 of them (27.66 BTC) as the result of "law enforcement efforts". No additional details have been provided from US officials.

My best guess at what happened - they arrested someone who sold something to the actual hackers, but not the hackers themselves.

At it's peak the tokens would have been worth nearly $228 million.

Bitfinex has just shared the following press release:

Since the well documented hack in 2016, Bitfinex has collaborated with international law enforcement agencies to provide intelligence and assist with investigations. Bitfinex was alerted in November 2018 that the U.S. government had obtained bitcoins believed to be proceeds from the 2016 hack.

Bitfinex has now retrieved 27.7 BTC and, further to the recovery strategy outlined in the aftermath of the hack, this is being converted to USD and paid to RRT (Recovery Right Token) Holders.

RRTs and Bitfinex’s Hack Recovery Plan: Following the theft on August 2nd 2016, Bitfinex took a unique approach, generalising the losses across all accounts and crediting BFX tokens to customers at a ratio of 1 BFX to 1 dollar lost. Bitfinex honoured its commitment to repay the losses. Within eight months of the security breach, all BFX token holders had their tokens redeemed at 100 cents on the dollar or exchanged their tokens for, directly or indirectly, shares of the capital stock of iFinex Inc. All BFX tokens were destroyed within this process. Additionally, Bitfinex created a tradable Recovery Right Token (RRT) for BFX holders that converted BFX tokens into shares of iFinex.

The benefit to RRT holders is that in the event of any retrieval of the stolen property, and after any outstanding or unconverted BFX token holders have been reimbursed, recovered funds are distributed to RRT holders, up to 1 dollar per RRT. As all BFX tokens have been redeemed and destroyed, the full amount of recovered bitcoins today is being distributed pro rata to the RRT holders.

“Over two years following the hack of the Bitfinex platform, today we see the results of a clear and robust response strategy and the efforts of the U.S. government. It gives us great pleasure to be able to reimburse our traders that were loyal to us and believed in us at a very difficult time. We would like to thank U.S. federal law enforcement agencies for their ongoing efforts to investigate the security breach and their commitment to seizing and returning stolen assets.

We will continue to assist law enforcement with their inquiries, and also once again extend an open invitation to the hackers, or anyone harbouring information pertaining to the breach, to make contact in whichever medium they feel most secure with, to finally resolve the situation in a mutually beneficial manner.” says Bitfinex CFO Giancarlo Devasini

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Author: Mark Pippen
London News Desk