Bitfinex is one of the best bitcoin exchange options and claims it offers the most liquid exchange in the world. Bitfinex is consistently in the top 10 cryptocurrency exchanges for daily market volumes.
Note: Please scroll down to the News section of this Bitfinex review – there is currently a subpoena order from the United States CFTC, but there is little details available yet. This puts our Bitfinex Review Rating into the caution category
Article Contents
Synopsis
They are the first to admit that their platform is for professionals. When you first register, there is a warning that you need to click that you ‘understand’ before you can register:
Professional Platform
Bitfinex is a platform for professional traders. If you are new to cryptocurrency trading, please consider another, more straightforward platform first and return to Bitfinex later.
Bitfinex also allows margin trading, which is fairly rare in the crypo exchange world. They allow up to 3.3x leverage by receiving funding from the peer to peer margin funding platform (details here). If you decide to fund the margin market, you can earn interest on your holdings.
With all of these in mind, our Bitfinex Review Recommendation is that this platform is for high-dollar, advanced traders – typically day traders who are in and out of the market multiple times per day.
Bitfinex Security Review
There isn’t anything too unique about the security setups at Bitfinex, but that doesn’t mean that they are lacking! They have all the boxes ticked and match up with the other best bitcoin exchanges.
- Protection from DDoS attacks.
- Automatic, daily backups of the database that are encrypted, compressed, and stored on separate servers in different physical locations.
- Two-factor authenticaion, physical security key options, and advanced verification tools that monito the integrity of your account.
- Withdrawal protections that monitor IP addresses and behavior patterns, as well as a withdrawal confirmation step that is immune to malicious browser malware.
- Cold Storage of Cryptocurrency – Bitfinex claims that only 0.5% of crypto assets are in ‘hot wallets’ accessible for day-to-day platform operations. The cold wallets with the other 99.5% of crypto assets are not available from the platform or the platform servers, and require manual intervention by several members of management.
Bitfinex Exchange Fees
For a full list of the fees, see this page at Bitfinex.
Order Execution fees are .1 % for maker fees, and 0.2% for taker fees.
Deposit fees for cryptocurrencies and TetherUSD are free, and there is a 0.1% fee for Bank Wire deposits. If a deposit is less than 1000 USD equivalent, then there is a small fee.
Withdrawal fees vary, but are free for some cryptocurrencies, and for others, here is a sample:
- Bitcoin – 0.0008 BTC
- Ethereum – 0.0027 ETH
- Ripple – 0.02 XRP
Bank wire withdrawals cost 0.1%, and require a minimum of 20 USD.
TetherUSD withdrawals cost $2.9052 USD
Make sure you review Bitfinex fees before you deposit any cryptocurrencies to the exchange.
Bitfinex Bitcoin Exchange Order Types and Options
Since Bitfinex has been around a long time, they have some of the most advanced order types. They have the usual, such as stop orders, limit orders, and market orders, but then they have advanced order types as well:
- Fill or Kill – The order must be filled in its entirety or its cancelled. This allows a full position is entered at the specified price
- One Cancels Other – This allows 2 orders to be placed, and if one is filled fully or partially, the other order is automatically cenacelled. This allows a combination of a stop order and a limit order, which allows you to take profit and stop loss targets for your positions
- Post Only – orders allow you to be sure you always pay the maker fee
- Hidden Order – Hidden orders are a way for large orders to be placed that aren’t put into the order book and don’t influence other market participants.
- TWAP – a Time Weighted Average Price is an order that will divide into multiple orders for a specified amount over a specified time period
Bitfinex Exchange News
January 30, 2018 – Bitfinex is Subpoenaed by U.S. Regulator, not specific details are provided as to what information the U.S Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking from the cryptocurrency exchange. The CFTC also subpoenaed Tether, which is an affiliated company offereing a fiat-backed cryptocurrency.
***Our initial Bitfinex Review was very positive, but this subpoenae puts Bitfinex into a ‘caution’ rating while we wait to hear/see what sort of concerns the CFTC has with the exchange, and possibly with the tie-in to the TetherUSD system.
Bitfinex Bitcoin Exchange History
Bitfinex is owned and operated by iFinex Inc. (BVI), was founded in 2012 and is based in Central, Hong Kong. The platform provides exchange trading, margin funding, and margin trading of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
In May 2015, approximately 1500 Bitcoins were stolen during a hack. Then, in 2016, Bitfinex was the subject of another hack worth around $72 million. This caused the price of Bitcoin to drop by 20%. Bitfinex created BFX tokens, distributed them in place of the stolen bitcoin, and vowed to pay them all back. By April 2017, Bitfinex announced they had bought back all of the BFX tokens, essentially paying back all of the customers hacked funds.
Mailing Address:
13/F
1308 Bank of America Tower
12 Harcourt Road
Central,
Hong Kong
Bitfinex Review Conclusion
All in all, Bitfinex is a very popular, secure, and advanced trading platform. Bitfinex would not be a good choice if you are new to cryptocurrencies, or if you wish to make a trade every once and a while. Bitfinex is best suited to day trader type investors who are placing multiple orders and managing many different coins.