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Bitfinex Review 2023
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Sinead Burgess
Cryptocurrencies have come a long way since their humble beginnings and it doesn’t seem that they will lose steam anytime soon.
With the popularity and success of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), a whole different industry was born, creating spaces for digital marketplaces like cryptocurrency exchanges. These platforms emerged in order to provide users with a safe environment for buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrencies.
Today, there are countless crypto platforms in every corner of the world. This time, we’re dealing with a popular global exchange by the name of Bitfinex. We’ll address its spot-on features, supported currencies, fees, security features, apps, and everything else that the Bitfinex platform has to offer.
About the Bitfinex Trading Platform
Bitfinex (bitfinex.com) is a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency platform that was launched back in 2012 and it’s currently managed by the company iFinex.Inc, a corporation that’s registered in the British Virgin Islands and headquartered in Hong Kong.
The exchange platform allows users to buy, sell, and trade different cryptocurrencies. Bitfinex supports different payment methods such as fiat deposits through bank transfers and cryptocurrency deposits. The platform was ranked number 9 by Coinmarketcap as a cryptocurrency exchange with the highest trading volume where users can trade over 100 different digital assets.
Bitfinex is utilized both by beginners and experienced crypto traders across the world due to its features and ease of use, but the thing that left a stain on this platform’s reputation in the past was its lack of robust security measures.
The platform was attacked by hackers two times, once in 2015 and then again in 2016. The 2016 hack is considered one of the biggest hacks in cryptocurrency history, as the platform lost 120,000 BTC. Bitfinex paid users back and made an effort to tighten the security belt in order to prevent future hacks.
In terms of net worth and overall value, the total net worth of the Bitfinex company is estimated at over $200 million USD, and in recent times the platform underwent an extreme financial growth, measuring up to 300% at the time of writing.
At the time of writing, the crypto exchange is being appraised as one if not the largest globally employed platform. The platform is mostly utilized in the UK (GBP), Europe (EUR), and Japan (JPY), and further. Users in the US are sadly left out of the loop because their native currency USD is not currently supported on the platform. Other than cryptocurrency trading, the crypto platform offers margin funding and trading, along with asset lending and staking.
Bitfinex Features
The Bitfinex trading platform allows for a consistent trading experience. There are order books with high liquidity that allow Bitfinex users to trade and exchange the most popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and up to 50 cryptocurrency trading pairs which we’ll address later in the article.
The platform boasts advanced market analysis tools with lists that contain technical indicators and market pattern recognition tools. Refined features include advanced charting along with API and enhanced reporting for investment decisions. Their UI is highly customizable and there is a wide variety of order types like limit, limit order, market, stop, stop-limit, trailing stop, fill or kill, and scaled orders. The fees on Bitfinex come with their own fee-tiers for different kinds of transactions.
The large amount of features and possibilities on Bitfinex is what makes the platform very popular with every type of trader ranging from beginners, intermediates, and experienced traders. Let’s look at some of them in more detail.
Margin Funding
The Bitfinex trading market allows users to earn interest on fiat currencies and digital currencies in a safe environment by providing funding for leverage trading. There is also the Auto-Renew option for automatically renewing leverage offers.
Margin Trading
The Bitfinex platform offers users the option for margin trading with up to 10x leverage by acquiring funds from the peer-to-peer margin trading platform. Users can enter an order and purchase their desired funding amount or they can just open a position and Bitfinex will provide the funding at the best available rates.
The Bitfinex Exchange
The Bitfinex exchange provides order books with the best liquidity options and enables users to exchange digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum with ease. Some other features on the exchange include futures trading, OTC services, and staking and lending cryptocurrencies. Users can also trade with cryptocurrency pairs on the platform, including even non-commercial cryptocurrencies.
Futures on Bitfinex
The Bitfinex platform enables users to undertake futures and supports perpetual derivatives contracts on their exchange. Users can trade derivatives with up to 100x leverage on various trading order types.
OTC (Over-the-Counter) Services
For users who wish to privately trade in large amounts of crypto (100,000+ worth of crypto), Bitfinex provides an over-the-counter trading platform. The OTC services match and secure major private deals.
Staking and Lending Services
Finally, the Bitfinex platform allows users to partake in staking and lending services. This feature enables users to stake or lend their cryptocurrency assets in a simple way without having to learn about the process from a different source or include any third-party staking software. The whole process is native and thoroughly explained on the platform.
Bitcoin and Other Supported Currencies
Bitfinex offers an extensive list of supported cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies, along with cryptocurrency pairs and crypto-to-fiat pairs.
The list of supported cryptocurrencies on Bitfinex includes Bitcoin (BTC) and a vast number of altcoins and stablecoins like Ethereum (ETH), Monero (XMR), Tether (USDT), Litecoin (LTC), Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Ethereum Classic (ETC), EOSIO (EOS), Chainlink (LINK), Polkadot (DOT), Tron (TRX), IOTA, DASH, NEO, AVAX, ZCASH, ZRX, etc.
When it comes to fiat currencies, Bitfinex supports three major currencies: Pound Sterling (GBP), European Euro (EUR), and Japanese Yen (JPY).
Bitfinex Fees and Limits
Users can conduct payments through bank transfers and cryptocurrencies that incur different fees according to the Bitfinex platform’s fee structure.
Deposit Fees
In order to deposit funds of Bitfinex via bank transfer, users will be charged a fixed fee of 0.1%. If the user wishes to deposit crypto, then the fee will vary from the choice of cryptocurrency. The minimum deposit or withdrawal is $10,000 EUR/GBP/YEN and the minimum order size varies from $10 to $25.
Withdrawal Fees
Bank transfer withdrawals incur a fixed 0.1% fee unless you’re in a hurry to receive the assets within 24 hours and you’re willing to pay a 1% fee. Cryptocurrency withdrawal fees depend on the cryptocurrency in question.
Trading Fees
The trading fees on Bitfinex depend on the user’s 30-day trading volume. They are also based on the taker and maker model. Taker fees are the fees paid by users who take up offers, while maker fees are charged to users who are investing fiat or cryptocurrencies or are placing an order to purchase crypto. Additionally, users who trade more than $500,000 per month have to pay an extra 0.2% taker fee. A list of all of the fees on the Bitfinex platform along with a calculator can be found here.
Is Bitfinex Safe to Use?
Bitfinex is not a regulated exchange and, as mentioned earlier, it has survived two hacks in the past. As a result of the hacking setbacks, the exchange has somewhat tightened its security. The security options on the platform now include a two-factor authentication verification process and an unconfirmed cold storage solution for 99.5% of the assets.
There’s also a Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) where a physical security key is utilized, advanced API Key permissions, I.P. address monitoring for withdrawals, email encryption, and DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection. Is this going to be enough to ensure asset security? We’ll have to wait for events to unfold.
Customer Support
Bitfinex has an extensive customer support section compared to other exchanges. This includes a live chat bubble on their website, a dedicated help section with guidelines and steps for account creation, a search box in the Help Centre, and email support.
Additionally, Bitfinex is very active on social media and can be contacted through these major social media platforms; Twitter, Linkedin, Telegram, and YouTube. The website is equipped to operate in 5 different languages, including English, Spanish, and Chinese Mandarin.
A Few Words Before You Go...
Despite their security system failing in the past, Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency platform that has existed for nearly a decade. The turmoil with the two previous hacks might have acted as a wake-up call because after that their security measures have increased immensely.
With the features that they include on their platform, the extensive customer support and social media presence, a native mobile app, and three digital wallets, Bitfinex is a great platform for non-US users. Beginners might struggle a little at the beginning but experienced users won’t need to take their business to some other place because Bitfinex offers it all – from regular cryptocurrency trading to staking, lending, futures and options trading.
At the end of the day, Bitfinex remains a solid pillar in the cryptocurrency trading infrastructure and we wholeheartedly recommend any user to try out their services.
frequently asked questions
Opening an account on Bitfinex is a simple task. The first step to opening your account is to visit their main website. There you will be greeted with a sign-up window on the homepage. Once you click on the sign-in prompt, you will be redirected to a sign-up table. You’ll need to provide an email address, a password, and a username. This completes the process of account creation and a confirmation link will be sent to your email.
In order to deposit currencies, you will have to verify your account. There are four tiers of different verification Basic, Basic Plus, Intermediate, Full. As with most cryptocurrency exchanges, the more information you provide about yourself, the more features and freedoms you will get. Full credentials might include a second copy of a government-issued ID along with a financial statement from your bank with all of your credentials.
Bitfinex has a mobile app that enables cryptocurrency trading on the go. The app comes with many features like viewing positions, open orders, and access to users’ trading history. The app is available for download on Android and iOS mobile devices.
Yes, Bitfinex offers three types of digital wallets: an exchange wallet, funding wallet, and margin wallet.
Bitfinex is accepted in almost every corner of the world including Australia, Japan, the UK, Europe with exceptions to the United States, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iraq, Iran, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Korea.
Some of the alternative exchanges to Bitfinex include Kraken, Binance, Gemini, and BitMex. These exchanges are one of the most stable and utilized platforms. Their fees can be considered a bit steep but their security measures are confirmed and all of them are regulated for operation. Consider these the creme-de-la-creme of the cryptocurrency platform industry, easy to use, regulated, and totally safe.
There are a few supported payment methods that include; SEPA wire transfers, cryptocurrency payments, credit card payments, and debit card payments.