Bitfinex Review – The A to Z of Bitfinex Bitcoin Trading Platform

This Bitfinex review provides everything you need to know about one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges that specializes in trading. If you were looking for more info on Bitfinex (Bitfinex.com) before deciding on which exchange to choose, then look no further. From the good to the bad, we lay out all available information from A to Z, helping you to make an informed and safe investment decision.

Disclosure: We get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

What is Bitfinex?

Bitfinex is currently one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, which specializes in trading. They were founded in 2012 and are owned and operated by iFinex Inc., a Hong Kong based company. As it stands, Bitfinex has the largest volume out of all other cryptocurrency exchanges. They have held the title of the largest exchange by volume from the day the People’s Bank of China ruled that all Chinese exchanges were to start charging trading fees. This ruling subsequently and immediately ended the ability of Chinese exchanges to report artificially inflated trading volumes.

The reason we have mentioned Bitfinex having the largest volume is that this can play an important role in your overall trading experience. Having the largest volume indicates a tighter spread, meaning the difference between buying and selling prices on Bitfinex is expected to be the lowest. Additionally, having the largest volume makes it prone to having the best liquidity. Most importantly though, it will generally lead prices across most other exchanges, so even if you do not intend to register with them, it would be a good idea to regularly monitor their BTCUSD prices. The below 30 day period graph from Bitcoinity, clearly shows Bitfinex’s dominance in terms of volume.

Bitfinex Features

• • Exchange – One of the most liquid exchanges available, thus allowing users to exchange major cryptocurrencies against USD or BTC with minimal slippage. Currencies offered are; Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, OmiseGO, Bcash, Iota, Monero, EOS, Dash, NEO, Zcash, Ripple, and Santiment.
  • Margin Trading – Allows users to trade with up to 3.3 leverage from their peer to peer margin funding platform. Simply enter an order to borrow a desired amount of funding at a rate and duration of your choice, or just open a position and Bitfinex will take out funding for you at the best rate available at the time.
  • Margin Funding Market – This feature provides a way to earn interest on the US dollar and major cryptocurrencies by providing funding to traders wanting to trade with leverage. Offer funding at the rate and duration of your choice or simply lend at the FRR ( Flash Return Rate). They also an Auto-Renew feature which allows you to renew your offers automatically upon expiry.
  • Order Types – Bitfinex offers a vast array of order types. Currently these include; Limit, Market, Stop, Trailing Stop and Fill or Kill. They also offer Algorithmic Orders which include; Iceberg Orders, One Cancels Other (OCO), Post Only, Hidden Order and TWAP.
  • Customizable Interface – Allows you to personalize and organize workspace according to your preferences. Customization includes switching between dark or light theme, in browser notifications, custom sound alerts, compose the trading sidebar and choose its side (left or right), manage tickers navigation and save preferences, organize and sort the Order Book columns, set table preferences.
  • API – An easy means of building digital asset trading applications and tools.
  • Mobile App – Available to download via Google Play or the Apple AppStore.

• • Chart Tools – Bitfinex has integrated TradingView charts. A great offer as it comes with plenty of technical analysis tools. Below is a preview of their chart, which is provided by Bitfinex.

• Extensive Reporting – Massive collection of reporting options available free to users. These include summaries of trading, fees, volume and login history. As well as reports on 2016 & 2017 order history, trade history, balances in all supported currencies, deposit & withdrawal reports, and funding reports in different variations. Bitfinex is unsurpassed when it comes to reports offered to its users.

Opening & Funding an Account with Bitfinex

The signup process with Bitnifex is ridiculously easy. All you need to do is provide a valid email address and create a username and password. That is it. Once you have done that you will receive an email verification, usually within a minute. If you do not receive a verification link to your email, be sure to check you spam or junk folder. When you have the verification email, click on the link provided. Once you have verified your email, you will have full access to all of Bitfinex’s features only if you plan to deposit funds, trade and withdraw in any of the cryptocurrencies they offer.

To fund your account using cryptocurrencies, all you need to do is enter your Bitfinex Exchange Wallet address into your Digital Currency Wallet and press the send button. Unfortunately, if you want to fund your account using US Dollars, you will first have to complete additional verification of your identity. In addition, funding your account with US Dollars is only available through bank wire transfer, which can be time consuming and costly. The use of credit cards, PayPal or Skrill is not available.

Bitfinex Fees

Bitfinex fees are generally low which is common with large exchanges who are focused more on trading. The fees charged will depend if you are a ‘Maker’ or ‘Taker.’ As found on their website bitfinex.com, here is an explanation of what being a maker or taker means; Maker fees are paid when you add liquidity to our order book by placing a limit order under the ticker price for buy and above the ticker price for sell. Taker fees are paid when you remove liquidity from our order book by placing any order that is executed against an order of the order book. Makers are charged 0.10% and Takers are charged 0.20%. Fees are based on percentages of the total volume of transaction.

Bitfinex Order Book

Support Options

Bitfinex has a fully functional support center available to all users via a ticket system. If you encounter any problems, simply create a ticket and the support team will contact you to help in any way they can. Additionally, they have put together tours of their platform and how to use it in order to help new users familiarize themselves with and understand how to use it. There are two sections for the platform education. The first one is to explore the platform and this comes in the form of 6 courses that you have the option of completing. The second one is to learn how to use and trade on the platform and this comes in the form of a help center. There you can explore multiple guides and FAQ’s at your leisure. More importantly, once you have completed the tours, we would advise taking advantage of the BitFinex demo before trading live with real money. Below is a screenshot of the demo.

Is This Exchange Safe? What about the Famous 2016 Hack

In August of 2016, Bitfinex unfortunately suffered a terrible blow in the form of a malicious hacking. This now famous hack resulted in roughly $72 million worth of coins being stolen from its users. This incident also earned the title of the second largest hack to happen in the world of cryptocurrencies. Many people, especially users at the time, reacted in shock and thus emotionally claiming that this would be the end of Bitfinex. Others claimed it was no longer a safe and trusted exchange and still others claimed them to be a scam. However, in light of how the company reacted too and handled the situation, we feel that they should be given some credit here, as they deserve it.

While Bitfinex immediately started trying to track down and trace the perpetrators, they also simultaneously issued BFX Tokens to all users who were affected. These tokens were proportional to each user’s respective losses and represented a promise to pay back all the losses as soon as the exchange was in a position to do so. On the 3rd April 2017, Bitfinex announced that all tokens would be redeemed 100% ‘shortly.’ To the best of our knowledge, the majority if not all losses have been paid back by the company. In our opinion, Bitfinex handled this situation very well. So well in fact, that a year later they are still in business and remain the largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. If you ask us, this actually raised their credibility tenfold.

Security

In light of 2016’s unfortunate event, Bitfinex have gone out of their way to do everything possible to raise the level of security offered by the company. Due to the sensitive nature of security, they are unable to disclose full details of all their currently implemented security measures. This makes it extremely hard to accurately assess the real level of security. However, they have made the following information available.

Users have various options for adding additional security to their accounts such as two-factor authentication (2FA) and Universal 2^nd Factor (U2F). Users also have access to advanced verification tools to monitor the integrity of their accounts like intelligent systems that detect changes in IP address, email notifications that report all logins plus a link to instantly freeze your account should you suspect any malicious activity. Users can also limit access to their account based on IP address.

Added withdrawal protection is also provided in which users can define an address whitelist to ensure no withdrawals can go anywhere else. There is a security system which monitors withdrawals by IP address plus other user behaviour patterns, this triggers manual admin inspection on any withdrawals that may appear unusual. Moreover, a withdrawal confirmation step that is immune to malicious browser malware. For added protection, there is an email encryption with OPENPGP.

System security measures include but is not limited to, always up to date Linux Systems to host the platform. Once a day automatic back up of database, including an automatic duplication of backup data, as well as DDOS protection.

Bitfinex Review Conclusion

We conducted some extensive research for this Bitfinex review. Including, reading through countless related threads on well-known forums, to updated articles and real user feedback. After going through hours upon hours of material, we have come to the conclusion that Bitfinex is probably one of the better exchanges on the market. There is nothing majorly wrong with them and they are certainly not a scam. Ultimately, though, it is up to each trader to research and analyse each exchange in order to reach a sound decision based on his or her own personal preferences and needs.

Aside from minor complaints, like customer support not replying quickly enough or not having a certain option available to users, we really could not find any serious fault with Bitfinex. However, having said that, no company is perfect, especially big corporation’s, but this does not make them a scam or untrustworthy by any means.

Review Verdict: Bitfinex is a Trusted Cryptocurrency Exchange

Official Site: BitFinex.com

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