LEO Token
The "LEO Token" (LEO) is a digital currency issued by the groups behind the fractional reserve Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. It is pegged and "worth" a I-Owe-You of 1 (t)USD. The total supply is 1,000,000,000 LEO (=USD IOUs). It was proposed in May 2019 and created in June 2019.
Background[edit]
The company behind Bitfinex, iFinex, placed around 850 million USD of customer funds in the hands of a Panama-based payment processor called Crypto Capital. Law enforcement froze all of Crypto Capital's accounts and assets due to suspicions of money laundering.
850 million USD is a significant hole. This is not the first time iFinex has been in a hole where customer obligations exceed available assets. Their previous solution was to issue a token called BFX which was slowly redeemed using the exchanges revenues. LEO is a similar scheme where IOU tokens are issued out of thin air with a promise to eventually redeem each token for 1 USD. Thus; it's a digital currency pegged to the dollar.
iFinex has promised to use 27% of the exchange's monthly profits to redeem outstanding LEO tokens.
"Advantages"[edit]
Holders of some LEO tokens (IOUs) get trading fee rebates and other advantages on the Bitfinex exchange. Rebates on iFinex's platforms is the only remotely good reason to buy the LEO currency.
Risk[edit]
LEO is worth 0 - zero, zip, nothing - if iFinex shuts down and disappears. It is a I-Owe-You from them which may or may not be redeemed for $1.
Recommendations[edit]
Holding any amount of a highly risky asset with no dividends and no upside - apart from some trading fee rebates - makes little to no sense.
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