Bitfinex plans to raise as much as $1 billion through an IEO, shareholder says

Chinese trader Dong Zhao has shed new details on Bitfinex's rumoured upcoming token offering, saying the exchange now may be planning to raise up to $1 billion through an initial exchange offering, CoinDesk writes.

The tokens will be available only to “qualified foreign investors,” Zhao - a Bitfinex shareholder - said, with a minimum buy-in of $1 million.

The total token supply will equal 1 billion tokens, worth $1 each. According to Zhao, half of the supply has already been allocated for purchase. In order to take part in the offering, investors must make a soft commitment by the end of this week but they can retire it after reviewing the token’s white paper.

“The system works on a first-in, first-served basis,” Zhao said. “If the whole [1 billion is] fully allocated, we will not have to run the IEO to the retail channel, it will be like a private placement.”