Bitfinex Bolsters Surveillance Capabilities with Irisium Platform

The newly installed, multi-asset system detects unusual patterns of behavior or signals that indicate manipulation. Irisium, which was formerly known as Ancoa Software, will help Bitfinex—a digital asset trading platform that launched in 2012—monitor for market abuses such as volume manipulation, wash-trading and fake liquidity.

Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Bitfinex, says the exchange currently has an in-house tool it uses to analyze trades coming across the exchange, but the addition of Irisium’s platform will help it to bolster its defenses.

“We really try to fight against who is trying to abuse our system. … If we start allowing these practices then we ruin the game for everyone and that is something we cannot allow,” he says.

Alastair Goodwin, CEO of Irisium, says this partnership with Bitfinex is an example of a “proactive” move in the right direction and sends the “right signals to the marketplace” as the industry gears up for the possibility of regulators in the US and Europe getting more involved in the crypto marketplace.

Ardoino says this recent move is unrelated to a hack in 2016 that resulted in a security breach that saw over $60 million worth of bitcoin stolen—the third largest bitcoin heist at the time—but he hopes that this can serve as a step toward creating a standard among digital currency exchanges.

“I would like to see some sort of standard, a standard policy among all the exchanges, and more transparency,” he says.

Goodwin adds that although it is not a requirement of digital currency exchanges to implement such surveillance measures, it is an important step in the right direction and creates confidence in the markets.

“I think it’s probably in the best interest of these marketplaces to be proactive, like Bitfinex, to put these type of systems in place and demonstrate the right governance, controls and oversight, because if they don’t—as we have seen with the likes of Mifid II and MAR and all the other regulations they have brought in Europe—the chances are that governments will have an obligation to step in and put regulation in place,” Goodwin says.