Prominent exchanges Bitfinex and Ethfinex have announced a new IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) platform.

The new platform, Tokinex, allows users to participate in pre-vetted token sales from new projects listing on the site. In a departure from other similar offerings such as Binance Launchpad, token issuers on Tokinex don’t have to pay any upfront fees for listing, while successful launches on the platform will also benefit from listing on both Bitfinex and Ethfinex.

The new exchange also utilizes the KYC service from Blockpass, which allows customers to complete KYC verification but without storing data on the exchange. The first token sale will be announced on May 23rd, with the sale taking place on 13th June.

Will Harborne, founder of Ethfinex, told CryptoGlobe:

Tokinex has been several months in development, incorporating feedback, testing and learning to reach a quality level users have come to expect at Bitfinex and Ethfinex. It has been carefully crafted to put the user experience front and centre, from incorporating Block Pass for KYC that is easy to use and does not store personal data, to being able to contribute existing assets directly from the user’s own wallet, rather than having to purchase a native platform token to participate.

IEOs in 2019

This latest platform from Bitfinex adds to the growing list of IEO platforms that have followed Binance, including OKEx, Huobi and Bittrex.

For Bitfinex, the news comes in the aftermath of fraud allegations in April from the New York Attorney General against Bitfinex and Tether, over alleged losses of over $850 million. However, the Tether Risk Premium, – a measure of how much the market believes Tether to be riskier than its underlying USD – has since almost completely disappeared, suggesting that investors at the moment have little concern over Tether’s value.

This is likely due to restored investor confidence in Bitfinex and Tether, after Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino revealed on May 13th that the company had raised $1 billion in a private token sale. The chart below shows the impact of the announcement – with the premium on the BTC price on the Bitfinex Exchange narrowing to zero following several weeks where bitcoin was trading above its spot price.