Bitfinex, a major Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange and a favorite of margin traders, has removed its original $10,000 minimum equity threshold. It said it made the decision in an attempt to open its services to “everyone”.

Its official Medium post explains (Apr 9) that the move was prompted by “overwhelming demand” in the last half a year from a “wide variety” of traders seeking to use Bitfinex but without the necessary upfront deposit.

“We simply could not ignore the increasing level of requests for access to trade on Bitfinex from a wider cohort than our traditional customer base. For the last six months, we have been working hard to ready our platform for a new wave of customer accounts and are now in a position to open Bitfinex to a wider audience. By dropping our minimum equity requirement, the only limits are now set by the traders themselves,” Bitfinex CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde elaborates.

In addition, to better meet the wants of a broader range of traders, Bitfinex said it has also been making changes and improvements to its services to better tailor them accordingly. It now offers an upgraded support center, a new and seamless Know-Your-Customer (KYC) portal, and Santiment token information – a cryptocurrency data feed that inform investors of every token listed on its platform.

Bitfinex has in the past offered interesting choices for margin trading. Last December, in what seems to be the first option of its kind in the industry, Bitfinex began offering margin trades on USD-pegged stablecoin Tether (USDT) against fiat USD. At the time, The Crypto Sight noted that Bitfinex’s move not only seemed to be a tacit admission that USDT could be insufficient as a stable alternative to USD, but it was all the more unusual considering the platform and Tether share the same CEO.