Bitfinex hits the headlines again. This time, the crypto Trading Platform has turned from an open trading platform into a private, members-only one without any official announcement.
Any new user looking to join the club now has to have an invitation code. However the platform does not mention anything about how to obtain this code.
The platform is asking for the code at the sign-up page, and if the adjacent "What’s this?" option is pressed, it shows the message: “Due to extraordinary demand, new accounts require an invitation code.”
As always, confused users took to Twitter and Reddit to seek information, but unfortunately, none is available yet.
The soaring crypto market has recently gained a lot of popularity and enthusiastic newcomers are jumping to take advantage and make some quick bucks. But the infrastructure and manpower of crypto exchanges often can't handle the huge influx of new users. Major exchanges such as Coinbase have had temporary outages recently.
Exchanges are continuously upgrading their infrastructure, but influx is still an issue.
Meanwhile, Bitfinex has also been experiencing DDoS attacks lately. In December alone, there were two attacks on the platform, as announced by Bitfinex’s official Twitter handle. The latest attack was on the 17th of December.
Last week, Bitfinex announced that a group of fraudsters posing as Bitfinex tech support is luring Bitfinex clients to disclose their private information. The announcement came after the group withdrew funds from the wallets of a number of Bitfinex customers.
The Hong Kong-based Exchange was also in the spotlight after the Tether hack. Earlier this month, the firm teamed up with lawyers to tackle an anonymous blogger going by the name 'Bitfines’ed', who is constantly targeting Bitfinex and Tether with theories of intentional market manipulation.
