Bitfinex Review

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012 making it one of the older platforms still in operation. They are registered in the British Virgin Islands and their parent company is iFinex Inc which has their headquarters in Hong Kong. In this Bitfinex review we will see what they have to offer investors and help you determine if they are the best cryptocurrency trading platform for you.

What Is Bitfinex?

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency trading platform with advanced features where you can buy, sell and trade over 160 different cryptocurrencies. The Bitfinex platform can be used by people from all over the world with the exception of residents of the USA, Crimea, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Pakistan and Syria.

Deposits to Bitfinex can be made using any of the sites supported cryptocurrencies or with 5 different fiat currencies. The fiat currencies accepted at Bitfinex are:

• USD
• EUR
• GBP
• JPY
• CNH

Fiat currency deposits can be made via bank wire transfer and recently Bitfinex started allowing the purchase of cryptocurrency using Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay via third-party providers Mercuryo and OWNR Wallet. In order to deposit and withdraw fiat currencies and take full advantage of all features of the platform users must complete the full Bitfinex verification process.

When you open a Bitfinex account you will notice there are 3 wallets. A different wallet will be used for each of the platforms core features.

• Exchange wallet: The Exchange wallet is used for exchanging supported cryptocurrencies on the platform
• Margin wallet: The Margin wallet is used for trading leveraged long and short positions
• Funding wallet: The funding wallet is for providing loans to other traders for margin trading

Bitfinex Fees

You will encounter a number of different fees on the Bitfinex platform related to various transactions. For 30 day volume trading amounts that are less than $500,000 the trading fees are a 0.10% maker fee and a 0.25% taker fee.  As the 30 day trading volume goes up the trading fees go down. At 30 day trading volume amounts of $10 million or more there is no more maker fee. The taker fee continues to drop until you reach a 30 day trading volume of $30 million at which time it is 0.055%. Takers fees can be additionally lowered by holding a certain amount of UNUS SED LEO (Bitfinex’s own token) in their Bitfinex wallet. If you look at Coinbase vs Bitfinex the trading fees at Bitfinex are substantially less.

Deposits made to Bitfinex in cryptocurrency under the amount of $1000 may be charged a small fee. Cryptocurrency deposits valued at $1000 or more are generally not charged a fee. Fiat currency deposits made via wire transfer are charged a 0.10% fee with a minimum fee of $60.

Fiat currency withdrawals via bank wire are charged a 0.10% fee with a $60 minimum. Cryptocurrency withdrawal fees vary depending on the coin being withdrawn. The fee to withdraw Bitcoin is 0.0004 BTC. Withdrawing some cryptocurrencies will incur no fees. It is best to check the particular fee for the crypto you would like to withdraw.

One other type of charge at Bitfinex is the margin funding fee. A fee of 15% is charged on all generated fees received by margin providers. The fee goes up to 18% of generated fees received by margin providers when opened by a hidden offer.

No specific fees for debit/credit card transactions are provided other than that the rates charged are reasonable.

Bitfinex Lending

One method to earn income without trading at Bitfinex is by lending your cryptocurrency through the platforms Margin Funding feature. This can be done by depositing crypto into your Funding wallet to provide financing to margin traders and you earn interest on the loan. You are able to set the desired return rate, duration and amount of the loan. After an offer is taken the trader will use the funds to open a cryptocurrency position on margin. When the position is closed your funds are returned to your wallet plus the interest that you earned. Any money you lend out is a crypto backed loan and your funds are secured by collateral held in the traders Margin wallet.

As a trader you can borrow from the platform by depositing funds into your Margin wallet. You can gain up to 10x leverage using borrowed funds for margin trading. The cryptocurrencies you can borrow are Bitcoin, USDt, ETH, LTC, DOT, XRP, EOS, ADA, UNI, LINK, XTZ, IOTA and ATOM. As collateral you may use the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, USDt, ETH, LTC, DOT, XRP, EOS, ADA, UNI, LINK, XTZ, IOTA and ATOM, the Bitfinex LEO token as well as the fiat currencies USD, Euros and JPY.

The Bitfinex platform matches borrowers and lenders and takes a fee based on the amount of interest earned by the lender. The minimum amount that can be borrowed is $100 and the maximum amount is $250,000. The amount that can be borrowed will depend on the type of collateral used and the amount.

Bitfinex Exchange & Trading

Bitfinex has high liquidity and is a top Bitcoin exchange based on BTC/USD daily trading volume. Users can buy sell and trade 160+ cryptocurrencies. There are over 100 different available trading pairs and their fees are extremely competitive. The platform is somewhat geared towards professional traders and newer users may struggle a bit. Users have access to the Bitfinex API which can be used to create customized trading strategies on the platform. There are a number of other attractive features available at Bitfinex users can take advantage of:

Margin Trading: Traders can borrow funds to leverage their trades up to 10x using Bitfinex peer to peer margin funding. The borrowed funds are secured using cryptocurrency as collateral

• Margin Funding: Investors can make loans to margin traders so that they can earn interest on their cryptocurrency asset. Their funds are secured by crypto held in the borrowers Bitfinex Margin wallet.
• OTC Desk. Bitfinex allows larger traders to deal directly with each other without having to go through public order books so that major deals can be secured privately. Trades must be a minimum of $100,000
• Derivatives Trading: Derivatives allow traders to speculate on the future price movements of cryptocurrencies without having to actually purchase the asset. USDt must be deposited in the traders Derivatives wallet as collateral.

Withdrawal Limits

The Bitfinex minimum cryptocurrency withdrawal amount is the equivalent of $5 in the cryptocurrency you are withdrawing. The minimum withdrawal amount in fiat currency via bank wire transfer is 10,000 USD/EUR/GBP, 1 million JPY and 75,000 CNH.  There is no maximum withdrawal limit. The majority of cryptocurrency withdrawals are completed in a few minutes but some may take longer. Fiat currency withdrawals generally take around 7 business days to complete but it could take up to 15 business days in order to comply with required AML/KYC procedures.

Cryptocurrencies

There are over 160 cryptocurrencies supported at Bitfinex. All the major cryptos like Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, Monero, Dash, Ripple, Iota, EOS and Tron are available as well as other lesser known coins such as The Abyss, Xriba, Matrix, Ethfinex Nectar Token, BnkToTheFuture and many others. There are well in excess of 200 trading pairs available.

Is Bitfinex Safe?

There is no doubt that Bitfinex has had some security issues. In 2015 they were hacked and 1500 Bitcoins were stolen. Almost 120,000 BTC were stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 which is the second largest Bitcoin theft in history. If you look at Bitfinex vs Kraken, Kraken has never been hacked nor had any cryptocurrency stolen. That being said Bitfinex did make good on their customers losses eventually. Security measures now include two-factor authentication as well as Universal 2nd Factor authentication. Bitfinex stores 99.5% of client funds offline in cold storage using a geographically distributed multi-signature system and has many other security measures in place. As of now it appears Bitfinex’s security issues are behind them.