Bitfinex security token platform goes live in Kazakhstan

Major global cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is finally moving forward with its security token platform (STO) in Kazakhstan, opening the first day of trading.

Bitfinex Securities, Bitfinex’s blockchain-based investment platform, is officially starting on Tuesday, the company representatives announced to Cointelegraph.

Announced in September 2021, the new STO platform is regulated within Kazakhstan’s national financial hub known as the Astana International Financial Center (AIFC). Bitfinex Securities specifically operates from a special economic zone in Kazakhstan, which has an independent court system, according to Bitfinex Securities chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino. The platform is not available to citizens or residents of countries like Canada and the United States.

According to the announcement, Bitfinex Securities is debuting trading with the Blockstream Mining Note (BMN), a security token offering qualified non-U.S. investors an option to mine Bitcoin or invest in BTC mining stocks using the associated hash rate of BMN. The token is issued on the Liquid sidechain of Bitcoin and will be trading against BTC and the U.S. dollar, enabling accredited investors to obtain exposure to Bitcoin mining.

“This underlines a pent-up demand among accredited investors for the opportunity to obtain exposure to Bitcoin mining, made available by BMN’s enterprise-grade facilities,” Ardoino told Cointelegraph. He added that the company continues working closely with local regulators as well as companies seeking to raise capital on the STO platform.

Related: Kazakhstan likely to lose Bitcoin hash rate leadership in next index update

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the Bitcoin mining industry has apparently been somewhat fading in Kazakhstan recently as the local government was terminating multiple mining operations and proposing energy price hikes as well as new crypto mining taxes.

As of August last year, Kazakhstan was one of the world’s biggest BTC mining counties in terms of hash rate distribution, housing over 18% of the global BTC hash rate, following only the U.S., according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.