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Leading crypto exchange Bitfinex has announced that it will carrying out some major maintenance at the start of 2019. The trading platform, as well as its ERC-20 token exchange Ethfinex, will be offline for up to 7 hours on January 7.
According to the exchange, it will be migrating its data to new servers during this time. These new specialized "bare-metal" servers will apparently offer users improved security and performance.
On Monday 7th January 2019, Bitfinex will be offline between three to seven hours as we complete the final stage of our data migration to dedicated bare-metal servers, in a move designed to significantly enhance platform speed, security and performance.https://t.co/uzeW1rSUZl
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) December 29, 2018
This move is part of Bitfinex's partnership with Swiss-based company Market Synergy, which offers institutional-level data security and connectivity solutions. This deal was first announced back in July.
Read more: Bitfinex partners with Market Synergy
We appreciate 7 hours is a significant length of time but we hope that you are as excited about this transformative step in our journey as we are.
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) December 29, 2018
2019 will be another important year for cryptocurrencies and we are excited to be at the forefront of developments in this space.
Bitfinex assures customers that their funds will be safe during this time, although it acknowledges that it is a "significant length of time". However, some observers are already wary of this move. Major centralized exchanges are regularly accused of market manipulation in the crypto space, and extended periods where individual retail traders are unable to access their funds are looked at with suspicion, particularly when there is notable price action around the same time.
Big dump or big pump is coming since bitfinex announced maintenance.
— Asad Khan (@asad_208) December 29, 2018
Read more: Binance announce maintenance is complete, normal trading resumes; BitMEX goes offline, Bitcoin spikes by $300; what does this mean for the market?