Bitfinex Lists New Cross-Chain DeFi Token to Drive DEX Liquidity

Major crypto exchange, Bitfinex, continues to drive decentralized finance, or DeFI, adoption by announcing support for a new cross-chain DeFi solution.

Bitfinex exchange plans to list pTokens (pBTC) — a new token that aims to unlock cross-chain DeFi liquidity by connecting Bitcoin (BTC) to any blockchain. The token is pegged 1:1 to Bitcoin and is compatible with the Ethereum (ETH) and EOS DeFi ecosystems to date.

Bitfinex to streamline liquidity flows between centralized and decentralized exchanges

Bitfinex CTO, Paolo Ardoino, told Cointelegraph that the platform expects to add support for pBTC deposits and withdrawals by the end of May 2020. Ardoino elaborated that pBTC will become the first DeFi interoperability-focused token supported on Bitfinex.

He said:

“At the moment we are supporting only pTokens but we welcome more projects to work with us to make it easier for our users to obtain access to cross-chain liquidity.”

Ardoino previously endorsed the pTokens project in late December 2019, predicting that cross-chain value transfers would be the most critical issue facing the cryptocurrency sector in 2020.

Thomas Bertani, founder of Provable Things, the main development team behind the pTokens project, said that pTokens’ integration with Bitfinex streamlines the flow of liquidity between centralized and decentralized exchanges. Bertani added that the listing facilitates an easy token switch and creates a new gateway for BTC liquidity to stream into the DeFi ecosystem. As of press time, pBTC is only trading on two markets — Kyber Network and Bancor Network — according to data from Coingecko.

pTokens launches Bitcoin to EOS interoperability bridge

Listing pBTC on Bitfinex comes in conjunction with pTokens launching an interoperability solution. This solution will make Bitcoin compatible with the EOS DeFi ecosystem. pBTC was brought onto the Ethereum network back in March 2020, enabling Bitcoin users to use pBTC in both the Ethereum and EOS ecosystems. Bertani pointed out that DeFi applications have to be interconnected to contribute to the entire DeFi industry growth:

“Decentralized applications today must interoperate and complement each other like lego blocks in order for the entire DeFi industry to scale. This interoperability is vital for the movement, as liquidity is the catalyst which will help DeFi reach its true potential.”

Bertani also added that the firm is actively working on other pTokens, including pETH, pEOS, pLTC and pDAI:

“New pTokens such as pEOS and pLTC have already been deployed in a test environment and will also soon be available on Ethereum mainnet. The same will apply to other assets, bringing pETH and pDAI to EOS.”

More options for stable Bitcoin collateralization via EOS DeFi

While the majority of the DeFi lending solutions integrate Bitcoin via Ethereum, pBTC’s launch on the EOS DeFi introduces Bitcoin as collateral for EOS stablecoins. As part of the initiative, pBTC will integrate with major decentralized EOS stablecoin, EOSDT. Developed by multi-chain DeFi framework Equilibrium, EOSDT will become one of the few Bitcoin-integrated EOS DeFi solutions. It will act as a new DeFi tool to provide the stable collateralization of pBTC.

Equilibrium is not the only firm that brings Bitcoin to EOS DeFi lending, however. Alex Melikhov, Equilibrium’s CEO and co-founder, said that EOSDT will be providing an alternative to the Bitcoin-EOS integration by dForce network. Melikhov added that the pBTC integration with EOSDT is scheduled for next week.

When a technical issue triggered millions of dollars-worth loan failures in March, pTokens’ Bertani opposed EOSDT to major decentralized stablecoin project, MakerDAO. Bertani said:

“The crypto industry has learned some hard lessons from the latest market falls. We can all agree that stablecoins have proved to be far less “stable” than we first imagined, with recent events like the MakerDAO debt auction exposing some hidden architectural flaws. New solutions are needed to guarantee the stable collateralization of these digital assets like DAI and EOSDT.”

The news comes after Chinese lending platform, Lendf.me, part of the dForce network, suffered a $25 million hack on April 19. The hacker subsequently returned the stolen money as of April 22 after potentially exposing their own identity data.