BitFinex Review

4.0
  • Summary
  • Crypto
  • Fiat
  • Fees
  • Features
  • Safety
  • FAQs

BitFinex is a well-established exchange that allows traders to buy, sell and trade a wide variety of digital coins. BitFinex, home to the LEO token, is one of the top cryptocurrency exchanges on the market. BitFinex has a reported trading volume of $1,191,106,141ย and traders can expect and average bid-ask spread of 1.087%.

Overview
๐Ÿ† CI Exchange Rank 4.0 (#16) ๐Ÿ“ˆ 24H Volume $252,048,462 (#20)
๐Ÿ“Œ Headquartered British Virgin Islands ๐Ÿงฑ Founded 2012
๐Ÿ’ง CI Liquidity Rank 0.086 (#28) ๐Ÿš€ Beginner-friendly? No
๐Ÿ’ฒ Supports Fiat? Yes ๐ŸŽŒ Languages Supported
๐Ÿ’ผ Business Accounts Yes โœ–๏ธ Margin Trading Yes
๐Ÿ‘› External Wallet Yes ๐Ÿ”ƒ OTC Trading Yes
๐Ÿ“ฑ Mobile App Yes ๐Ÿ’ฐ Integrated Wallet Yes
๐Ÿ”ฎ Futures Trading Yes โšช๏ธ Spot Trading Yes
โญ•๏ธ Coins: 168 ๐Ÿ”€ Pairs: 643

BitFinex is a global cryptocurrency exchanges that is supported in most countries. However, this excludes the U.S. BitFinex is more suited to the experienced trader, with advanced trading tools, such as OTC that takes some getting use to if you’re new to trading cryptocurrency.

Pros Cons
One of the most established, high volume exchanges U.S citizens not accepted
Suited for experienced traders Not regulated
Accepts Bank Wire deposits and withdrawals No debit/credit card or e-wallet deposits

BitFinex was launched in 2012 by iFinex Inc and head-quartered in Hong Kong. The company is led by JL van der Velde(CEO) and Giancarlo Devasini (CFO).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crypto on BitFinex

Crypto Market Listings on BitFinex

BitFinex has a reported trading volume of $252,048,462 in the last 24 hours. Traders can expect an average bid-ask liquidity spread of 0.086. BitFinex is ranked position #28 among exchanges for liquidity.

  • USD
  • EURO
  • GBP
Coin Pair Price Spread
BTC/USDT $70872 0.01
ETH/BTC $3572.12 0.04
ETH/USDT $3572.95 0.06
SOL/USDT $186.74 0.05
USD Coin
UDC/USDT $1 0.02
SOL/BTC $186.6 0.08
ADA/USDT $0.652046 0.03
XRP
XRP/USDT $0.627935 0.06
GALA/USDT $0.066955 0.03
XRP
XRP/BTC $0.628502 0.11
Avalanche
AVAX/USDT $54.66 0.05
DOGE/USDT $0.223876 0.09
ADA/BTC $0.651885 0.11
LINK/USDT $19.23 0.1
XLM/USDT $0.13791 0.07

Crypto Verification

A trader will need basic level verification to deposit & withdraw cryptocurrencies. Basic level verification requires a working email address.

Currencies available to you on BitFinex can be limited based on your verification level. Typically, an ‘Intermediate’ verification affords the user complete access to all coins.

What's Needed
๐Ÿ›‚ Documents Passport, Driving Licence ๐Ÿ•– Verification Duration 1 day

Crypto Deposits

There is no deposit fee charged for cryptocurrencies or stable coins.

Buying In
Crypto/Coins Free

Crypto Withdrawals

The majority of Crypto withdrawal fees carry a fixed fee per coin/token. Some are free, however. For further details feel free to visit the BitFinex Fees Schedule.

Cashing Out
Crypto/Coins Varies from Free/Fixed Fee

Fiat on BitFinex

Fiat Market Listings on BitFinex

  • USD
  • EURO
  • GBP
Coin Pair Price Spread
BTC/USD $70869 0.01
USDT/USD $1 0.1
LTC/USD $94.03 0.02
XRP
XRP/USD $0.62808 0.03
SOL/USD $186.78 0.05
ADA/USD $0.65229 0.03
XMR/USD $135.4 0.07
EOS
EOS/USD $1.07 0.09
DOGE/USD $0.22412 0.13
FIL/USD $9.23 0.08
IOTA
IOT/USD $0.35398 0.11
DOT/USD $9.48 0.08
APT/USD $17.09 0.18
SHIB/USD $0.00003194 0.03
GALA/USD $0.067034 0.07

Fiat Verification

For fiat trading, you will require full verification. This includes:

Intermediate documents and a financial statement is required if you want to make use of bank wires (at the full level you will be able to access all of the intermediate features as well. For example, you will be able to deposit/withdraw with Fiat (eg: USD) and buy/sell with BitFinex.)

What's Needed
๐Ÿ›‚ Documents Passport, Driving Licence ๐Ÿ•– Verification Duration 2-3 Days

Fiat Deposits

Forย fiat bank transfer deposits, the fee isย 0.100% with a minimumย fee of $60.

Buying In
Bank Transfer 0.1% / $60 minumum

Fiat Withdrawals

BitFinex allows traders to withdraw fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CNH). The only condition being that your account must be at a ‘Full’ verification level.

  • A standard withdrawal can take between 5-15 days. The fee structure for the withdrawal of fiat currencies is 0.1% of the amount withdrawn, with a minimum of $60.00.
  • Express fiat withdrawals are processed within 24 hours (1 business day) at a fee of 1.00% of the withdrawn amount.
Cashing Out
Bank Transfer 0.1% / $60 minumum Express Bank Transfer 1%

BitFinex Fees

BitFinex offers users some extremely low trading fees. Fees are calculated as a percentage of the trade order value.

Fees are broken up into three distinct sections:

  • Maker Fees – 0.1%
  • Taker Fees – 0.2%
  • Derivatives – 0.075%
  • OTC – (BitFinex desk 0%, other trades 10 basis points)

 

Discounts

It’s worthwhile to note that traders can access discounts by:

  • Holding the currency LEO.
  • Operating with higher trading volumes (see below)

BitFinex Features

Spot Trading

BitFinex has central limit order books for the spot trade of digital tokens. You are able to deposit, trade, and withdraw digital tokens. Have a look at the BitFinex coin table.

Margin Trading

BitFinex allows users to trade with up to 10x leverage by receiving funding from the peer- to -peer margin funding platform.

Users can enter an order to borrow the desired amount of funding at the rate and duration of their choice, or they can simply open a position and BitFinex will take out funding for them at the best available rate at that time.

Margin Funding

Margin funding allows you to earn interest on your digital assets through lending our your funds to other traders who would like to trade with leverage.

What percentage will you gain back with Margin Funding?

Margin funding is calculated based on the amount, interest rate and the length of time that funding was provided/taken.

This means that the funding takers and providers will pay or receive funding interest in the same currency they initially borrowed.

You can work out how much margin funding interest to pay using this formula:

(amount*(rate/100)*(seconds/86400)

It is equally important to note that the funder will receive the interest paid by ‘borrower’, minus a 15% fee.ย  Funding that is opened with a hidden offer will be charged 18% instead.

For example:ย 

If you have an active offer of $10,000 USD at 0.06%, you will earn 6.00 USD per day. On that 6.00 USD per day, a 15% fee is charged, which reduces the amount to $0.90 USD. Additionally, you will receive $5.10 USD per day that the offer is taken.

BitFinex charges interest by the hour on any funding that is borrowed and manually returned.

BitFinex will charge a minimum of one full hour’s interest to the borrower on any funding that is borrowed and manually returned. A user that has provided the funding will receive the full hour earnings, minus a 15% fee.

OTC Trading

OTC tradingย  is a form of decentralized trading. This means you sell directly to the buyer through a broker, rather than through a large centralized exchange with lots of red tape and exorbitant fees.

The BitFinex OTC market is an option for traders who are interested in performing large trades directly and bypassing the public order books. The OTC market provides access too large liquidity without affecting the exchange market price.

Two ways to take advantage of the OTC desk
1. Access real-time liquidity through BitFinex OTC desk
2. Trade directly with another BitFinex user.

Affiliate Scheme

Once you have a successfully verified your BitFinex account, you will be allowed to participate in the BitFinex affiliate Scheme.

The BitFinex affiliate scheme is a commission-based program, that allows you to earn a percentage of the fees every time your referrals trade or perform certain actions on the platform.ย  Once your account is active, you will be able to generate referral codes.

What are your expected earnings as an Affiliate?

As a BitFinex affiliate, you can earn up to three degrees of connection. Here is the fee reward schema:

  • 1st degree (direct) Member connections: 18%
  • 2nd degree Member connections: 6%
  • 3rd degree Member connections: 2%

Paper Trading

On BitFinex, newly created sub-accounts can be set to Paper Trade.

The paper trading feature is a lot like a demo- account feature. It allows you to test and experiment with strategies in a simulated market. No deposit is required as test tokens are used.

The account will only see the following test tokens: TESTBTC,ย  TESTUSDT, TESTUSD, TESTAAA and TESTBBB. These tokens do not hold any real value.

Integrated Wallets

Your BitFinex account has three wallets – one for each of our core features.

There are three wallets to choose from – Exchange,ย Marginย andย Funding.

  1. Exchange Walletย is used for buying & selling supported cryptocurrencies on the exchange.
  2. Margin Walletย is used when trading on margin.
  3. Funding Walletย is used whenย providing financingย for other margin traders.

External Wallets

External Wallets are supported when withdrawing cryptocurrencies. You can withdraw cryptocurrencies to any valid address for the relevant cryptocurrency by visiting the Withdrawal page.

BitFinex App on the go

The BitFinex app gives you full portfolio control. View positions, open orders and trading history at the click of a button for full control.

Bitfinex mobile app

Mobile App Core Features

  • Exchange and Margin Trading
  • Charts
  • Margin Funding
  • Transfer between wallets
  • New deposit
  • Last movements (deposits/withdrawals)
  • Notifications on trades execution
  • Price alerts
  • Reports: track your historical movements and ledgers

Business Accounts

There are some distinct differences when it comes to business/corporate accounts:

  1. Cross Connectivity: all corporate and professional traders are able to access the fastest trading speeds through institutional-grade connectivity and co-location services.
  2. Sub-accounts: Corporate traders can create sub-accounts. This way, they will be able to group together trade volumes for fee tiers,ย  and separate deposit and withdrawal permissions.
  3. Expedited verification: Corporate traders enjoy a more simplified verification process. All they need to verify is:
  • Name & Contact Information
  • Location
  • Identity
  • Financial documents
  • KYC

 

Customer Support

BitFinex customer support is available 24-hours a day via email and more recently, live chat.

You can submit your query through the BitFinex Customer Support page, where you will be presented with categories to choose from. This will help you get through to the right department.

The Customer Support team are fluent inย  English, traditional and simplified Chinese, Russian and Spanish.

BitFinex Safety

CER Cyber Security Score (CSS)

 

 

7.03/10

CSS is an industry benchmark assessment of the cybersecurity characteristics of a given exchange. It consists of three weighted components: application-level security, SSL/TLS connection, and domain security. CSS uses over 18 indicators, based on the best practices of cybersecurity protection.

Two- Factor Authentication

BitFinex has implemented two-factor authentication to verify a trader’s identity:

  • Google Authenticator on Android and iOS devices
  • Physical Security Key using FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F)

Having two -factor authentication active on your account gives your account a second level of security between an attacker and withdrawal confirmations, password changes, API key creation, logins and any other changes to your account.

Cold Storage

Bitfinex has a cold storage system that maintains approximately 99.5% of user funds in an offline, multisignature wallet. This wallet requires four of seven hardware security modules (HSMs) in possession by globally-distributed management team members to approve all transactions.

In the event an administrator is compromised and forced to log into the platform, they would be unable to do anything as they would not reach the minimum 4 HSMs to approve the transactions.

This is an extremely safe system and makes the system safe from cyber hackers.

BitFinex FAQs

Does BitFinex support fiat currencies?

Yes. Bitfinex supports fiat currencies such as USD/EUR/GBP/JPY/CNH

Does BitFinex support third-party Wallets?

Yes it does. However, BitFinex does urge all users to only transfer to wallets they have full control over.

Can I use my Bitfinex account to participate in ICOs?

Yes you can. However, it is recommend that you use a dedicated, local wallet in which you hold the private keys to. This is to lower the risk of coin theft.

Can I use Bitfinex to make online payments?

Yes. BitFinex account holders can now seamlessly make payments in digital tokens to merchants/businesses that have installed the BitFinex Pay widget.

Is Bitfinex Regulated?

BitFinexย is notย regulated. The company is registered in the British Virgin Islands and operates in Hong Kong.

Is Bitfinex Safe?

Yes, BitFinex has built a secure exchange platform that uses advanced cold storage systems and two factor authentication. Read more about BitFinex safety here.

Is Bitfinex available to US customers?

No. Bitfinex is not registered or regulated in the US and is not open to US citizens.