LEO is the exchange token of Bitfinex exchagne. 

In 2018 iFinex, the parent company of Bitfinex, was made aware it's payment processor, Crypto Capital, was subject to a partial government seizure of its funds. While efforts are being made, there is no certainty that Bitfinex will be able to recover the funds. To alleviate the cash shortfall, BitFinex announced it would conduct a private offering for $1 billion for it's token Unus Sed Leo.

The token will be used to receive discounts on trading on current and future iFinex trading platforms and services. iFinex will buy back tokens from the market with a minimum of 27% of consolidated revenues from the previous month until all tokens are removed from circulation. In addition, an amount equal to 95% of the recovered net funds from Crypto Capital and 80% of recovered funds from a 2016 hack will be used to repurchase outstanding tokens.

Bitfinex is made up of six core features:

1. Exchange Trading

At the heart of Bitfinex are central limit order books for the spot trade of digital tokens. Users can deposit, trade, and withdraw digital tokens.

2. Margin Trading

Bitfinex allows qualified users to trade with up to 10x leverage, receiving financing with the help of our margin funding and peer-to-peer financing platform. When opening a financing position, users can manually enter a funding order to receive the desired amount of financing, at the rate and duration of their choice. Alternatively, users can open a financed trading position and Bitfinex will automatically link them with peer-to-peer financing at the current prevailing rate.

3. Margin Funding

The P2P financing market provides users with a way to earn interest on their digital assets through lending out their funds to other users who want to trade with leverage. Margin funding allows you to earn returns on your funds without the risk associated with trading. If you prefer a low-risk investment strategy then Margin Funding is for you. To learn more, read our Introduction to Margin Funding.

4. Over The Counter Market (OTC)

Bitfinex offers a private OTC Market as an avenue for traders seeking to perform large trades directly with a counterparty, bypassing the public order books. Trades performed via the OTC Market provide access to large liquidity without affecting the exchange market price.

5. Derivatives

Bitfinex verified users (intermediate level and above) can use the Derivatives Trading feature provided by iFinex Financial Technologies Limited. The maximum leverage for derivatives trading is 100x. The leverage will determine the amount of allocated collateral.

6. Paper Trading - test, learn and simulate trading strategies

You can also use the Paper Trading function to test and experiment in a simulated market. Test tokens are used therefore no real deposits will be required, the tokens do not represent any value and cannot be withdrawn. To learn more, read our Paper Trading guide.

A token burn mechanism means iFinex is committed to buying back UNUS SED LEO from the market on a monthly basis. The amount thats purchased and burned is equal to at least 27% of the revenues generated by iFinex — and tokens are also purchased at the market rate. In a news release at the time, the company said: The burn mechanism will continue until 100% of tokens have been redeemed.

Whereas some cryptocurrencies just launch on a single blockchain, LEO tokens were issued on two blockchains. While 64% of the original supply was on Ethereum, the remaining 36% could be found on EOS.

As we mentioned, the circulating supply of LEO tokens is designed to diminish over time. Originally, the total supply was set at 1 billion.

LEO was sold for $1 apiece on a 1:1 basis with the Tether stablecoin, meaning that a total of $1 billion was raised over a 10-day period.

There were 660 million ERC-20 tokens at launch, as well as 340 million EOS-based tokens — and Bitfinex allows conversions between the two chains to be made with ease.

At the time, the company described the dual protocol launch as unique — and vowed that it would empower the Bitfinex community.