In 2016, those who fell victim to the Bitfinex hack were provided iFinex shares as compensation, since the cryptocurrency exchange lacked sufficient funds to fully reimburse its users.
iFinex’s parent company, iFinex, has put forward a proposal to repurchase $150 million worth of the company’s shares from those individuals who had been granted these shares as compensation for the $71 million Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange hack that transpired in 2016, as reported by Bloomberg.
The intention to repurchase these shares was disclosed by iFinex in a letter addressed to shareholders, dated September 22. The digital asset company has offered a purchase price of $10 per share for the 15 million shares that were distributed in response to the Bitfinex hack in 2016.
At the time of the Bitfinex hack, the exchange lost nearly 36% of its total user balances, all of which were in Bitcoin. However, Bitfinex was incapable of providing users with full compensation due to a shortage of available funds. Instead, they provided users with recovery-right-tokens (RRT) and equity in the form of iFinex shares to bridge the gap in their balances caused by the hack. Users were given the choice between these two alternatives.
The distribution of iFinex shares was part of a stock swap arrangement established in 2016 in collaboration with the investment platform BnkToTheFuture. This arrangement enabled affected users to obtain RRT BFX tokens, which iFinex later redeemed for shares in the company via BnkToTheFuture. The $10 offering resulted in iFinex being valued at $1.7 billion, a significant increase from its self-valuation of $120 million in 2016.
The company asserts that the buyback program reflects its “positive performance” in recent years. This buyback initiative would enable investors to divest themselves of a somewhat illiquid investment.
A select group of directors from iFinex and its affiliates are eligible to participate in the buyback program. According to the terms of the agreement, there is no minimum requirement for the number of shares that must be offered for the buyback to proceed. The parent company has stated its readiness to purchase as many shares as are made available until the maximum limit is reached. Shareholders have until October 24 to make their decision regarding whether they wish to sell their shares back to iFinex.
