Bitfinex Review

Bitfinex Review: Platform performance

The Bitfinex team designed and developed the platform with experienced traders in mind. As a result the platform provides the fastest trading speeds with institutional-grade connectivity. The company ended up partnering with Market Synergy for this very reason.

Additionally the platform is robust and built to withstand high user volumes. This most importantly comes in handy when there is a market crash. As a result you will always have access to your funds even during crucial moments. In other words when you would like to quickly sell your crypto assets.

This is not the case for a lot of exchange out there. A lot of other exchanges tend to crash when they are overwhelmed with a large pool of users trying to login at the same time. It worth mentioning in this Bitfinex review that it is by far one of the major advantages for using Bitfinex. 

Supported Countries

Bitfinex supports 190+ countries around the world. However the United States is not one of them because of the challenging regulatory environment.

Additionally Bitfinex recently told their Ontario customers in Canada to close their account. They notified them that they have until 1st March 2022 to withdraw their funds and close their accounts. Bitfinex did not provide much of an explanation.

However they may be back tracking on this announcement because of a misunderstanding with the regulator. The story has only just broke on the 14th January.

Bitfinex Review: Features

Customisable interface

It takes a while to set up but it is possible to customise the user interface to your preferences and needs. You can choose between themes, organise the layout as you desire and set up notifications.

Exchange

Easily buy and sell any of the cryptocurrencies available on the platform. This is the place for regular exchange to take place. Leverage is not available in this case.

Margin trading

You are allowed to trade with a maximum of 10 times leverage. This is possible because Bitfinex provides access to traders to the peer-to-peer funding market. Leverage is for experienced traders only and it is not otherwise recommended. this is especially the case if you have not used this before or have limited experience with it. 

Margin funding

Your ability to trade with leverage is provided by other traders who offer liquidity. It allows the providing traders to generate yields. The funds are traded on an order book at different rates.

Order types

The platform makes a whole range of different order types available for you to select. It is purposely flexible to cater for any scenario you could encounter.

OTC (Over the counter)

This is a good idea to use if you are a whale. In other words when you have large amounts of crypto and do not want to negatively impact the market. Which tends to happens when someone dumps large amounts.

Instead of impacting the market and yourself you can use the OTC option available. Consequently you will execute a peer-to-peer trade with another Bitfinex users. This option will not be listing the market order on the order book.

Crypto loans

You can earn rewards on even small deposit amounts of crypto if you choose to lend them. The list of cryptocurrencies you are able to earn interest on is small. However you can exchange cryptos and make it worthwhile for yourself. Most importantly if your cryptos are going to be sitting in a wallet for a while.

The rate of interest is different according to the crypto you are lending which varies from 0-10%. The higher paying interest for certain cryptos make it attractive. Moreover you there is no fixed amount of time you would need to keep your assets locked. You can withdraw your rewards whenever you like to your Bitfinex wallet.

On the other hand borrowers can borrow crypto and set their terms for borrowing. You can set the amount, time period up to 120 days and whether you want to get a fixed or variable rate.

Bitfinex Review: Fees

You have a choice to deposit funds in either fiat or cryptocurrency. Additionally you will need to deposit or withdraw a minimum of 10,000 USD/EUR/GBP.

Deposit

Withdrawal

Bank wire fees are 0.1% for a minimum of 60 USD/EUR. Express banks wire transfers fees are at 1%. Maker and taker fees are standard when doing a regular exchange. The maker fee is 0.1% and the taker fee is 0.2% which are competitive considering fees charged on other platforms.

Transfers between wallets

Each cryptocurrency has 3 wallets, the exchange, margin and funding wallets. Each wallet is used for different purposes. The exchange is purely for exchange, the margin wallet is for trading and the funding wallet is for lending. Internal transfers between wallets are free and instant.

Trading

Trading fees are different according to the amount you wish to trade. The higher the amount the lower the fee. Derivatives trading has other fees associated with it. If you would like to have a comprehensive list of all the fees you can hope onto Bitfinex and check out all the fees in the fees section – view all the fees.

Bitfinex Review: Security

Bitfinex has been hacked twice in the past. The first time was in May 2015 when hackers stole 1,500BTC off the exchange. The second time was in August 2016 when 120,000BTC were stolen.

Albeit Bitfinex compensated their clients as you can see here. They wanted to make sure they resolved the issue well so that their clients remained loyal to them.

However since then Bitfinex have tightened their security on the site. Security has become their top most priority. As a result they have had no further security breaches. They have implemented a range of measures that place them as one of the most secure cryptocurrency exchanges.

Of course we will always recommend that you do not keep cryptocurrency sitting idle on an exchange or platform. Your crypto will be safer if you use a hardware wallet like for example Ledger or Trezor.

These hardware wallets have had no security breaches since they launched on the market. Additionally Ledger has been independently certified as secure by a top security firm. Here is the Ledger review and Trezor Review.

If you are actively trading your cryptocurrency then you can keep it on Bitfinex. Here are the steps Bitfinex have taken to secure client funds:

Funds held in cold storage

Above 99% of client funds are held in cold storage. Consequently it makes it difficult for hackers to be able to steal the funds.

Monitoring withdrawals by IP

Bitfinex can monitor your withdrawals by IP addresses by using email encryption. You can set a limit of crypto withdrawals to your registered whitelisted addresses. There are many settings that can be switched on for additional security and peace of mind.

Withdrawals made within 24hours of a new IP being registered will trigger an automated email. It will ask you to verify the withdrawal. You can also opt to lock withdrawals from new IP addresses for 24hours. Additionally you can set a secret phrase for withdrawal confirmation.  

Two-factor authentication

Bitfinex requires you set up two-factor authentication on sign up for additional security  before you start using the platform. You can set this up using a physical security key using FIDO Unviersal 2^nd Factor (U2F) or Google Authenticator.

You can use Google Authenticator, but physical security keys are much more secure. Google required all its 85K+ employees to start using security keys in 2017 and not one of them has been phished. One of the top physical security keys on the market are Yibikeys by Yubico.

Additional platform protection

Further to the measures above they also have additional protection mechanism for the platform itself. These include protection against DDoS attacks, they regularly update their systems, and back up databases and encrypt them.

Bitfinex Review: History

Bitfinex was one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges to emerge onto the scene. As a result they have built valuable knowledge and experience over the years.

Bitfinex opened its door in December 2012 as a peer to peer Bitcoin exchange. As time went by the company started to add more cryptocurrencies to its platform for trading. It is based in Hong Kong, however the company is registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Bitfinex Review Conclusion

Although Bitfinex has had problems with hacks in the past it has come a long way as a company since then. While doing this Bitfinex review it was clear that Bitfinex took the steps necessary to secure client funds and prevent further breaches.

Bitfinex also compensated their clients after the breach. This helped Bitfinex retain its client and continue to build on its reputation as a serious exchange and trading platform.

Another appealing reason to consider Bitfinex is that it is a robust platform. It will not be down and prevent you from logging in when a lot of users swarm the platform. Especially in those crucial moments when the market is tanking.

Bitfinex fees are low and has all the features you will need from a trading platform. It has high liquidity with industry-grade performance speed for executing trades.

Moreover Bitfinex customer support is helpful and fairly prompt in resolving customer issues. In fact their good work is reflected in the small amount of complaints that they receive online. Especially when you consider the number relative to their large user base.

So if you encounter any problem, your mind is at rest knowing that they are there when you need them most. This is better than most cryptocurrency exchanges or platforms that seem to get a bad rap due to bad customer service.

Bitfinex is a Great Platform

In short and to conclude this Bitfinex review, we think this is an outstanding exchange. Bitfinex rivals most other top exchanges and trading platforms. It does have a high entry bar. As in it only allows those that are able to afford large deposit and withdrawal amounts to use the platform.

However, for those that are capable to transfer those sums it is well worth considering. It means they get people that make large transactions and they can collect more in fees. The money they make is reinvested into the platform or into customer service to support their clients better.

Visit Bitfinex

High security
Low trading fees
Handles large user volumes

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