Bitfinex Users Face Aug. 31 Cutoff or Fee-Bearing Recovery

Bitfinex users holding any of the 13 crypto tokens the exchange delisted in July have until 10 a.m. UTC on Aug. 31 to withdraw them. Standard withdrawals for the affected assets stop working after that cutoff. Bitfinex says any later retrieval is handled at its discretion in a two-month window. Fees come out of whatever is recovered, and the process is not guaranteed to succeed. No completion timeline has been set.

Anyone who misses the cutoff ends up in that window. Bitfinex did not say what happens to balances that remain after it closes.

The withdrawal mandate covers Cosmos (ATOM), Bit2Me (B2M), Bitget Token (BGB), EigenLayer (EIGEN), Vaulta (A), GateToken (GT), Jupiter (JUP), Kava (KAVA), Lido (LDO), NEO, Nexo (NEXO), OMNI and Ultra (UOS).

Some of the affected assets are native tokens for significant blockchain networks. LDO is the native token of Lido, Ethereum's dominant liquid-staking platform, and EIGEN is the native token of EigenLayer, the Ethereum restaking protocol. Several of the tokens, including LDO, EIGEN, ATOM and JUP, trade on other venues as well. For holders with meaningful balances, a timely transfer keeps the assets under their control. After the deadline, control shifts to an exchange-run process with a fee of unspecified size.

Normal transfers before the deadline carry a $5-equivalent minimum plus network fees that vary by asset. For a small balance, the transfer cost can exceed the value of what is being moved.

Ticker codes add another layer of confusion. The exchange said some assets appear under alternative interface or API codes on the platform, such as ATO for Cosmos and EOS for Vaulta. Wrong-code searches can make a balance look missing when it sits under a different symbol. Tether (USDT) on Cosmos and Unus Sed LEO on Vaulta are not affected by the delisting.

Separately, Bitfinex is clearing out remaining Japanese yen and JPY-PERP balances. Any yen left on the platform converts to USDT outside the public order book at an undisclosed time and the prevailing market rate. Account holders get no choice of timing or rate, and a 5% fee is deducted from the converted amount automatically.

The delisting follows a market notice Bitfinex issued June 23. Deposits and trading for the affected assets stopped in July, leaving withdrawal as the only action available to holders. Aug. 31 is the last day standard withdrawals work.

Bitfinex also instructed users to clear any NEOGAS balances, a requirement that applies even though NEOGAS itself is not on the withdrawal list.