Bitfinex Review: The Exchange That Was Controversial But Still Evolving

One of the most well-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, Bitfinex is renowned for its minimal costs. It is also closely related to the Tether stablecoin, which has caused the exchange to face scrutiny from authorities. Although Bittfinex’s cheap costs are a benefit, its erratic past may worry potential consumers. Let’s learn details about this project with Coincu through this Bitfinex Review article.

Bitfinex Overview

Bitfinex is one of the older cryptocurrency exchanges, founded in 2012. Since its inception, the exchange has continued to be a market leader in cryptocurrency trading, and according to CoinMarketCap, it is presently ranked ninth among the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world by volume.

By inflating Tether reserves and concealing losses, Bitfinex and Tether, according to the New York Attorney General, deceived customers and the markets. Additionally, Bitfinex has been penalized in the past for running an unregistered exchange and enabling unauthorized off-exchange transactions. That raises severe concerns about the reliability of this cryptocurrency exchange.

Information about Bitfinex

• Founded: December 2012
• Founders: Giancarlo Devasini, Raphael Nicolle
• Area served: 52 countries
• Key people: JL van der Velde (CEO)
• Products: Cryptocurrency exchange, cryptocurrencies
• Revenue: $25 million (2021)
• Subsidiaries: BFXNA Inc.

This Bitfinex review will go through the key aspects of the exchange so you can decide whether the exchange is the best option for you or whether you’re better off using a different reputable cryptocurrency exchange. Here is a brief summary of the exchange advantages and disadvantages.

Pros	Cons
High liquidity	Controversial
More than 500 different trading pairs	Tight verification processes
Low trading fees	Past security breaches
Margin trading, derivatives, and advanced order types supported	US traders are not allowed
Paper trading and mobile app suitable for newer cryptocurrency traders	Questionable involvement with the Tether currency

Features

Bitfinex is an advanced cryptocurrency exchange with a large number of supported coins and a sizable daily trading volume. Despite its prior issues, Bitfinex remains a leader in the market and is favored by many traders. In spite of providing services practically everywhere in the globe, Bitfinex had to cease accepting customers from the US owing to the country’s strict regulatory environment.

On its live trading platform, Bitfinex offers over 170 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Terra, Tether, Solana, Litecoin, Ripple, and many more. It would take too long to mention them all, but overall, Bitfinex performs a great job of facilitating popular currencies on its platform.

As was already mentioned, Bitfinex has a strong connection to the stablecoin Tether, which is always worth $1. If you’re willing to retain Tether at all, you might want to reconsider holding too much of it, given historical problems with dishonesty regarding reserves. It’s up to you to determine whether or not you trust Tether when it still says that the currency is completely supported.

Trading

With sufficient liquidity, Bitfinex supports a large number of cryptocurrency trading pairs. The platform further provides margin funding and up to 5x leverage for margin trading.

The Bitfinex trading interface is easy to use, and seasoned traders will value the capabilities and possibilities it provides. To test your approach before investing real money, you may start with a free paper trading account that provides you access to the Bitfinex platform and plays money. This is analogous to playing a stock market game.

The order types available on the Bitfinex trading interface can be customized to meet specific needs:

• Limit Orders
• Market Orders
• Stop Loss
• Trailing Stop
• Fill or Kill
• OCO
• Post Only Limit Orders
• Hidden Orders

The trading interface is user-friendly for beginners, and switching between funds, derivatives, and spot trading is simple. The option to short Bitcoin BTC is available on Bitfinex, which also charges new customers 0.1% maker and 0.2% taker fees. The scheduling plan allows for maker costs as low as 0% and taker fees as high as 0.055%, but you must trade at least $30 billion in a 30-day period.

The maker rebate starts at -0.02% and the taker charge at 0.075% when it comes to derivatives costs, which is very common across all cryptocurrency exchanges.

Margin trading, derivatives trading, historical price data through Bitfinex Terminal, automated algorithmic trading, and a sophisticated API for developers are further possibilities and features.

Fees

The Bitfinex trading costs are another noteworthy aspect. The majority of deals either have a 0.10% maker fee or a 0.20% taker fee. Trades in stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and fiat all use that rate.

You can avoid costs if you keep LEO currency in your account. You will receive 15% off taker costs for crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-stablecoin trades when you have the equivalent of $1 in LEO in your account. You can get 25% off taker costs for cryptocurrency crypto-to-stablecoin trades and 10% off fiat trades if you have at least $5,000 in LEO. Moreover, depending on your amount, you may be eligible for a bigger percentage discount if you have $10,000 or more in LEO.

High-volume traders who do more than $500,000 in monthly activity can also be eligible for reduced fees.

Payment Method	Bitfinex Fee
Debit/Credit card	Varies
ACH Transfer	Not Available
Wire Transfer	0.100% (Min $60 fee)

Over the counter trading and funding

One of the few exchanges that offers over-the-counter (OTC) services, or transactions between two parties without the involvement of the exchange, is Bitfinex. Traders can also lend money to other traders in a variety of currencies.

Margin financing is seen as a more secure investment since Bitfinex utilizes a risk-limiting system to stop suppliers from losing money, however, this is not guaranteed to never occur.

Fiat deposits and withdrawals

All users have access to the USDT/USD trading pair, and verified users can deposit and withdraw USD. Cryptocurrency deposits do not incur additional fees; however, deposits made with fiat currency do incur a 0.1% charge with a $60 minimum.

It’s crucial to remember that, even with KYC verification, Bitfinex services are unavailable in the US and a few other countries.

Mobile app

If active trading is new to you, you might feel more at ease beginning using the smartphone app. There are also many tools at the expert level, such as assistance for complex, sophisticated orders.

The Bitfinex mobile wallet, which runs on iOS and Android platforms, is relatively new. Users have given the app an average rating of 3/5 stars, commenting about how sluggish it is even on brand-new and updated devices.

The app itself has almost all the functionality available on the internet, however, it does appear slow and jerky.

Customer Support

Your Bitfinex account is mostly self-service, like the majority of crypto exchanges. The exchange’s FAQ and support pages are the best places to go for answers to your queries.

For assistance through email, Bitfinex also employs a support ticket system. You won’t be able to receive immediate assistance in the event of a problem because there is no phone or live chat support accessible.

Even while the exchange has drawn a lot of flak over the last few years, most notably because of its connection to Tether USDT, 0.01%, the exchange generally gets positive feedback on review sites.

Reviews that are favorable highlight the platform and automated trading system. complaints about long withdrawal wait times and sluggish customer service replies. The ratings for the exchange are higher than those of certain rivals, but overall, most crypto companies fare poorly on consumer review websites.

Account Management

Users may access the exchange website or mobile app to manage their accounts. Similar to internet banking, almost all client account settings are self-managed.

If you’ve used online bank accounts before, you can easily browse and follow the menus and dashboards on Bitfinex. The exchange should be simple to use and straightforward for those who have prior expertise with FX trading apps or active stock market trading platforms. Now, the Bitfinex Review article will learn about the security of the exchange.

Security

In the past, Bitfinex has been the target of cyberattacks. About $400,000 in client funds was taken in 2015. A more significant theft of $73 million took place in 2016.

Other issues Bitfinex has encountered include a lawsuit accusing the exchange of hiding an $850 million loss using Tether reserves. Traders may establish 2FA or U2F protection for their accounts, and the site does utilize advanced security methods such as keeping the majority of the assets in cold wallets.

To protect customer accounts and assets, Bitfinex employs many techniques that are commonplace in the bitcoin sector. These consist of two-factor authentication, sophisticated APIs for integrating third-party services, capabilities for withdrawal protection, and cold storage of client assets.

However, Bitfinex hasn’t always been that good about maintaining security. In addition to the aforementioned regulatory difficulties, the firm has had several hacks, losing both client money and confidence in the process.

Competitors

Although the exchange faces stiff competition from sites like Kraken, Coinbase, and Bittrex, all save Bittrex have around the same trading volume.

Hundreds of trading pairs, including fiat pairings, are available on Bitfinex, something that only a handful of cryptocurrency exchanges now do. The platform is essentially accessible everywhere, despite not being available in the US.

Although Bitfinex is a big participant in the cryptocurrency industry, there are other significant exchanges to take into account if you’re interested in trading cryptocurrencies. Here is a comparison between Bitfinex and Coinbase, another well-liked trading site for bitcoin enthusiasts.

• Users in the United States can access Coinbase, however, those outside of the country can only utilize Bitfinex.
• At Bitfinex, trading commissions range from 0.10% to 0.20%. On the active Coinbase Pro platform, fees are 0.60% for the majority of low-volume trades.
• Basic, active, and mobile trading platforms are available from Coinbase. Similar venues for buying and selling cryptocurrencies are provided by Bitfinex.
• While Bitfinex is strongly associated with Tether, Coinbase is closely associated with the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) (USDT).
• The US government has received fine payments from both Coinbase and Bitfinex.

Read our comprehensive Coinbase review for additional details.

Conclusion of Bitfinex Review

The contentious crypto exchange has managed to endure and rise above all criticism. It continues to be one of the most well-known exchanges in the world and offers consumers a wide range of trading choices and excellent liquidity.

After a number of serious assaults, the exchange has made substantial advancements in its security procedures. One of the most well-known and often used cryptocurrency exchanges in the world is quite likely to continue to be Bitfinex. Hopefully the Bitfinex Review article has helped you understand more about the project.

DISCLAIMER: The Information on this website is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. We encourage you to do your own research before investing.

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Harold

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