Ethfinex, the Ethereum-centric spinoff of Bitfinex, is spinning out to independence by severing ties with its parent exchange and rebranding to DeversiFi, a regulated decentralized exchange set to cater to consumers and institutional traders alike.
Announced on August 13th in a company blog post, the shift comes on the heels of a “management buyout” Ethfinex-turned-DeversiFi chief executive officer Will Harbone confirmed with The Block on Tuesday.
As such, Bitfinex will no longer be a controlling shareholder in what began as its complementary exchange. DeversiFi will accordingly register anew in the British Virgin Islands and will go it alone operationally, no longer being able to lean on Bitfinex’s leadership and deep pockets.
As CEO Harbone explained:
“This is more than a rebrand — this is about needing more space to grow […] I wouldn’t call it a coup d’é·tat. We’ve done this with Bitfinex’s blessing.”
DeversiFi Wants to Become a Premier DEX
Of course, there is no shortage of decentralized exchanges in the cryptoeconomy as it stands.
For their part, the DeversiFi team is hoping to use their new pivot to foster a DEX that will provide superior quality across the board rather in just a few areas. As the project’s leadership put it in their Tuesday announcement:
“Before now, traders of decentralised exchanges have been forced to sacrifice speed and choice in the name of security and control. Our mission has been to change that, creating an exchange that is fast, liquid, feature-rich and easy to use – all whilst preserving the ownership and security that sits at the heart of decentralised exchange.”
The DeversiFi team also noted that the rebrand preceded a slew of new services that were imminently coming to the DEX. First off, the platform will be activating decentralized margin and lending services for its users courtesy of the bZx Fulcrum protocol.
Moreover, DeversiFi would be moving to a new fee model on its reshaped platform.
“With its high speeds, liquidity, and low slippage, the new fee structure will reduce the overall cost of trading, making it one of the best value exchanges in the market,” the project’s backers said.
Another New Exchange Making Headlines: Meet BLADE
Also freshly making the rounds in the cryptoeconomy? The news that U.S. cryptocurrency platform Coinbase participated in a $4.3 million USD fundraising round for a new crypto derivatives exchange called BLADE.
Specifically, BLADE will focus on perpetual swaps — a type of derivative that is similar to a futures contract but unlike futures don’t have set expiration times. In this sense, traders can use BLADE’s swaps to speculate on a cryptocurrency’s future value against another asset.
Set to launch on August 27th, BLADE will allow its traders leverage up to 150x on its BTC/USD and BTC/KRW pairs.
Notably, the leadership of the crypto derivatives platform says the exchange will rely on “manual audits” for withdrawals, meaning BLADE security employees will directly review and approve every withdrawal request to mitigate compromised accounts. U.S. traders will not be able to use the platform over regulatory concerns.
Zooming out, BLADE’s new war chest of funding comes as the wider crypto swaps arena is generally heating up.
Also on Tuesday, Chicago-based cryptocurrency platform Seed CX announced that Seed SEF, its crypto derivatives exchange subsidiary, had started trials of physically-settled bitcoin margin swaps.
The company will still have to wait on regulatory approval before these swaps are launched to the public, as Seed CX president Brian Liston told CoinDesk:
“We are ready from a technology standpoint. The other factors that can influence our timeline is the regulators’ views on these products.”