Bitfinex owner plans $150m share buyback

The Hong Kong-based company iFinex — owner of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex — is weighing a $150 million share buyback. Bloomberg reports.

iFinex proposed at $10 per 15 million shares of the exchange. According to documents, the deal size amounts to 9% of the firm’s outstanding equity, with a total valuation of about $1.7 billion.

The viability of the offer depends on cash inflows from at least one of iFinex’s subsidiaries.

The initiative is directed at shareholders who acquired shares under the 2016 соглашения об обмене with investment platform BnkToTheFuture. In the same year, as a result of the hacking, about $71 million in bitcoin was stolen from Bitfinex.

The buyback is the result of the organisation’s “positive indicators” over the past several years, according to the statement. A number of iFinex executives and some of its subsidiaries will be allowed to participate in the deal.

Giancarlo Devasini, the CFO of Tether and Bitfinex, is listed in the document as a direct shareholder.

Under the terms, there is no minimum threshold for the exchange’s shares offered for sale. iFinex is prepared to buy any amount of securities up to a cap of $150 million.

Earlier media reported that Bitfinex holds digital gold on its balance sheet. According to insiders, the platform historically kept a portion of the proceeds from bitcoin operations “as a long-standing obligation to the world’s first and largest cryptocurrency.”

In May, the issuer of USDT disclosed that it owns Bitcoin valued at $1.5 billion. Later, the issuer of USDT announced up to 15% of net realized operating profit for the purchase of bitcoin.

Earlier in July, U.S. authorities returned Bitfinex $314,000 seized in the hack.