According to Bitfinex’s announcement, the exchange alongside its subsidiary Ethfinex will be going offline for a couple of hours on June 26th for a scheduled update.
The exchanges will be off-limits for about seven hours, due to scalability and stability enhancements being implemented on the platforms.
Traders will not have access to their wallets or the charts. The whole platform will be rendered useless for those seven hours.
Bitfinex is promising the traders that there is absolutely nothing needed from their side and that the company will take care of the safety of their funds. The exchange is justifying the upgrade through its goals of launching derivatives trading on the platform, for which, scalability is paramount.
Although Bitfinex estimates around seven hours of downtime, it’s expected that this may change due to market volatility. If prices continue to jump so often during the upgrade, it’s likely that the upgrade will either be postponed or cancelled.
Bitfinex traders should expect a heads-up from the exchange five minutes before the launch so that they have enough time to gear up and close any remaining positions they may have left before the upgrade.
The volatility of the market is sure to become a bit more manageable during Bitfinex’s downtime. The exchange is one of the largest in the world, therefore taking away such a large chunk of the trading volume in one fell swoop is sure to take a toll on the prices and trading habits of the investors.
It’s expected that some minor altcoins will suffer a fluctuation during downtime, and a huge surge after the re-opening.
