Bitfinex launches margin trading for gold-backed stablecoin
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has added margin trading for tether gold (XAU₮).
Starting Jan. 30, the exchange will support margin trading for XAU₮ with trading pairs for the US dollar, USD, and bitcoin. The margin feature will require initial equity of 20% and offer up to 5x leverage, according to a press statement.
Tether Ltd., the company behind USDT, released XAU₮ on Jan. 23, with each token representing ownership of one troy fine ounce of physical gold held in a Switzerland vault. The stablecoin is available as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain and a TRC20 token on the TRON blockchain.
Bitfinex listed the new stablecoin on Jan. 24 and will soon allow users to borrow funds to increase their trading positions, which brings the potential for greater profits as well as greater risks, the statement said.
“The launch of margin trading on Tether Gold will allow more advanced trading strategies, enabling a more sophisticated means of hedging exposure and managing risk," said Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino.
The exchange also noted that it has raised its offered leverage for the BTC/USD trading pair from 3.3x to 5x.
"Raising our leverage from 3.3x to 5x is a noteworthy development, and is also timely given growing interest in gold and other safe haven assets amid the recent turmoil that we've seen in equity markets,” Ardoino said.
