NEM lists XEM on bitFlyer ahead of Symbol launch

XEM, NEM’s native token on the original NEM blockchain (NIS1), has been listed on Japanese crypto exchange bitFlyer. Based in Tokyo, bitFlyer was founded in January 2014 by Yuzo Kano, a former Goldman Sachs trader. bitFlyer has offices in Tokyo, San Francisco, and Luxembourg, and is one of the largest Japanese crypto exchanges by trading volume.

Iain Wilson, Chief Financial Officer of NEM Group and Managing Director of NEM Trading, says the Japanese community has played an important role in the growth of the NEM ecosystem over the last five years. “The bitFlyer listing will encourage the growth of the community, both in Japan and beyond. The listing deepens their involvement in both NIS1 and Symbol, and brings increased liquidity to our community.”

NEM’s Japanese userbase will benefit from the liquidity of the bitFlyer exchange and the listing will prepare XEM holders for the upcoming launch of Symbol from NEM.

Symbol is a next-generation blockchain solution designed for enterprise use. Symbol (codename Catapult) represents a full rewrite of the NEM protocol. Due to launch later this year, Symbol has been in development since 2018. Symbol is designed to help businesses cut costs, reduce complexities, and streamline innovation. Symbol is expected to provide significant upgrades in flexibility, security, speed, and ease of use over the original NEM blockchain.

Jeff McDonald, co-founder of the NEM Foundation says the NEM developer team has applied all the learnings that come from running version 1 of their blockchain in production for four years. “Symbol is a more performant, scalable, and feature-rich protocol as a result. It will become the core NEM engine, powering both private and public blockchains,” explained McDonald.

When the Symbol chain launches it will be introduced in parallel with the original NEM NIS1 blockchain. This will give existing holders of XEM agency throughout the migration. XEM holders who choose to opt-in will obtain an XYM balance equal to their XEM balance at the time of the snapshot, a timestamp when user balances in XEM on the NEM blockchain will be recorded.

XYM is the native currency of the Symbol public blockchain. It will be used to pay for transactions in order to incentivize the network of public nodes that process transactions.

Selected data on the NEM public chain will migrate to Symbol when the public chain is released. When the Symbol public chain begins, all XYM will be allocated based on each user’s XEM account balances on the NEM blockchain. XEM to XYM allocations will be 1-for-1, meaning that 1 XEM on NEM gets a holder 1 XYM on Symbol. However, all allocations must be manually claimed by each account holder. Other data, such as root namespaces and multisignature account configurations will also be migrated and must be manually claimed.

XYM will be allocated based on each user’s on-chain XEM balance. The NEM team recommends that users move XEM off exchanges and into an on-chain account. Some exchanges may yet decide to provide migration for their users, but the only way to be certain is to hold XEM in your own account on-chain.

Several weeks before launch, the team will take a snapshot of the NEM chain at a specific block. Allocations will be finalized at this block. Transactions that happen after the snapshot block will not affect the new Symbol chain.

The NEM team has not yet announced when the snapshot will take place, but they will announce the date well in advance so all users are able to make the necessary arrangements. Snapshot data will be auditable and transparent.