Bitfinex Review & Rating 2024
Visit BitfinexA trusted broker/exchange is very important for cryptocurrency trading. In the following review article we will explore the pros and cons of Bitfinex Exchange. We will try our best to give an honest review of Bitfinex. If you are interested in the Bitfinex Review, stay with us.
If you are not completely new in the cryptocurrency world, you know that Crypto Exchanges are not well regulated. Especially those exchanges which are situated outside the United States of America.
Today we will try to give a review on Bitfinex Exchange. In terms of trade volume, Bitfinex is one of the largest exchanges in the world. Even though it has a repeated history of getting hacked. This is not going to be a sponsored review. All the information you are going to read is based on the author's own opinion. AtoZ Markets is in no way responsible for any of the information provided. If you are from Bitfinex and you think that the author did injustice in his review, please contact the AtoZMarkets editorial team from the contact page of AtoZMarkets website. But we don't guarantee to change our opinion unless you provide any solid evidence in favour of you.
Bitfinex Overview
The parent company of Bitfinex is Hong Kong based iFinex Inc, registered in the British Virgin Islands. Bitfinex started its journey as a cryptocurrency exchange in 2012. The exchange is operating their business in 52 counties, though US citizens are not allowed to open accounts on Bitfinex after the hacking incidents in 2015 and 2016.
Bitfinex has state of the art technology and tools mainly focused on advanced traders or traders with big funds. The exchange can be suitable for small capital traders if they have a credit card and debit card. They accept Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay.
Bitfinex Review: Pros and Cons
Pros
✓ The broker is good for advanced and experienced traders with big funds.
✓ Bitfinex supports over 200 Crypto pairs.
✓ Good ethics- after the 2016 hack they compensated the suffered traders.
✓ They have high liquidity which is a strong point.
✓ They accept both credit cards and debit cards. (Visa, MasterCard and UnionPay).
Cons
× They have been hacked on multiple occasions.
× The broker is not regulated by any reputed regulatory authorities, in fact not by any authorities.
× They do not allow US Citizens to open accounts.
× In 2016, all of its clients had to bear 36% 'Haircuts' on their account balance, though a year later they were compensated. But they must have gone through metal stress.
× Instant support is only available during weekdays 8 am to 4 pm UTC. No support is given over the phone.
× The broker is not good for beginners/small traders.
Overview
User Interface (UI)
In our Bitfinex Review, let's begin with the services they provide to their customers.The Exchange provides a wide range of services to its customers. Let's dive into them.
Exchange Trading
Bitfinex offers exchange trading which is also known as spot trading. Here you have to trade without leverage. To do exchange trading, you have to login in your Bitfinex account. Make sure you have enough funds to open trade.
In the trading page, you will find all the available pairs like the below image.
image credit: Bitfinex
Margin Trading
Bitfinex gives 10X leverage through margin funding and peer to peer financing to its eligible customers to trade.
Margin Funding
Bitfinex Exchange allows you to provide margin funding. By lending margin, you can earn interest on your available funds. It can be a low risk investment opportunity for conservative traders.
Over the Counter (OTC) Market at Bitfinex
In the OTC market, traders can trade their currency without the direct involvement of the exchange. In this market an individual directly deals with another individual for buying and selling Crypto. Traders who are looking for a large deal, Bitfinex allows them to trade on their OTC market.
Derivatives Trading
To trade cryptocurrency, one needs to verify his account fully on Bitfinex. But traders with intermediate verification can do derivatives trading on Bitfinex. This feature is provided by iFinex Financial Technologies Limited. For derivatives trading, they provide up to 100X leverage.
Paper Trading
Paper Trading is more like demo trading. By doing paper trading you can learn more about Bitfinex features and services. To know more about Paper Trading at Bitfinex click this link.
How to Open a New Bitfinex Account
To open an account with Bitfinex, go to the sign up page, fill the form with username, email address and password. You will get a verification email in your inbox. Verify it. After the email verification, you have to activate your security settings
They suggest you set a strong password and enable Google Two-factor Authentication (2FA). It's a bit of a difficult process but worth it.
They also recommend enabling withdrawal locks if a new IP address is used.
In addition to that you can set up a withdrawal confirmation phrase.
They also have some more security settings, click here to know more.
Does Bitfinex Have a Mobile App?
Bitfinex has both Android and iOS apps for trading. Their mobile apps have full functionality of Bitfinex platform that lets you trade on the go. You can download their app from Google Play Store and iTunes Store free of cost.
Bitfinex Token
Bitfinex has its own token named UNUS SED LEO, trading under the name of Leo Token. While I am writing this review Leo to USD rate is 3.13$ (26 November 2021). Total market capitalization of Leo Token on 26 November 2021 is $2,937,398,634. Total token supply is 985,239,504. Circulating supply is 940,761,767. The token is being traded on 30 different markets but most active on Bitfinex.
Trust/Reputation
Is Bitfinex Safe?
It's not a secret anymore that Bitfinex faced difficulties in the past. In 2015, they lost 1500 Bitcoins as the exchange was hacked. But the problems didn't end here. In 2016, the second largest theft happened, when Bitfinex was hacked again. This time 120,000 Bitcoins were stolen. The largest theft victim was Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. They lost 460$ million due to the hacking incident.
Though all the accounts of Bitfinex were not affected, they decided to give a 36% 'Haircuts' to its all clients account value.
One year later, clients who had their BFX tokens were fully compensated for their loss.
In 2017, Bitfinex bank accounts were frozen by Wells Fargo. After a few weeks, they got back their accounts. But incidents arise complaints and dissatisfaction from customers.
In 2019, there was news by Forbes that Bitfinex lost access to $850 million of customer funds from Crypto Capital, one of the Bitfinex payment processors – due funds being seized by the UK, US, Poland, and Portugal. But there is no clear information of what happened next.
From then to till now (we are approaching the year 2022), they are going smoothly. It seems customers had kept faith in them. As a result, Bitfinex is one of the largest exchanges in terms of trading volume.
Fees
Bitfinex Trading Fees
Taker-Maker Fees
Bitfinex fees vary between maker and taker trade. The fees for Maker is between 0.10% to 0.0%. On the other hand, Taker fees are between 0.20% to 0.055%. So it's evident that Bitfinex is for advanced traders with big funds.
Bitfinex Deposit Withdrawal Fees
In the below tables you can find the deposit and withdrawal fees depending on currencies.
Regulation and Fund Security
Is Bitfinex Regulated?
Regulation of a broker is a very important aspect. With an unregulated broker, your money may not be safe. If any unwanted situation arises, no one would be there for you to protect your money/rights. But with a regulated broker, if anything happens, regulatory authorities can take action against the broker.
To write a Bitfinex review, I have explored their website to find if they are regulated or not. I didn't find any information on whether they are regulated or not. Based on that we can say Bitfinex is not a regulated broker.
Bitfinex Scam?
It's true that in the past Bitfinex broker has been hacked on multiple occasions. It's also a fact that the broker is not regulated. But we can't say that it is a scam broker. Even after all those happenings, Bitfinex is one of the leading exchanges in terms of trade volume. It seems investors have put their faith in them. We hope from them that in the coming time they will go under regulatory authorities.
TrustPilot Reviews on Bitfinex
Bitfinex Review- image credit: TrustPilot
282 people have reviewed Bitfinex Exchange on TrustPilot so far. 46% of people marked it as excellent. 18% of people said it's a great broker. Only 5% said it's an average broker. 3% of the reviewers said it's poor and 28% of the reviewers said it's bad. The average rating is 3.6 out of 5.
Deposits and Withdrawals
Once you have enabled all the security settings, you are ready to deposit your fund to trade on Bitfinex. They allow deposits through both Fiat currencies and Cryptocurrencies.
Accepted Fiat currencies on Bitfinex are USD, EUR, GBP, JPY AND CNH.
Now that you know your account is safe, you will need to deposit to get started trading on Bitfinex. You can fund your account with both Fiat currencies and Cryptocurrencies.
They support a wide range of Cryptocurrencies to deposit in your Bitfinex account. To check all the currency lists go to Bitfinex.
Withdrawals Funds
Bitfinex offers withdrawal to personal wallets or bank accounts. To withdraw fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY and CNH), you have to fully verify your account.
To withdraw fiat currencies it may take up to 10 days, while withdrawal of Cryptocurrencies to your wallet can take up to 10 hours.
Customer Support
They have a virtual assistant available for chat for 24/7 which is actually a bot. However the live chat specialists are online from 8 am UTC to 4 pm UTC on weekdays. They don't give support over the phone. Apart from this, they have 24/7 support via cs.bitfinex.com where you have to fill a form for your issues to be resolved. So you can only get instant support during weekdays from 8 am UTC to 4 pm UTC.
Bitfinex Compared to Others
Bitfinex is one of the major players in the world of cryptocurrency however, if you're interested in trading cryptocurrency there are other top exchanges worth considering. Let's take an overview of how Bitfinex compares with Coinbase which is another well-known trading platform for investors in cryptocurrency.
Coinbase is accessible for U.S. clients, whereas Bitfinex is only available to customers outside of the U.S.
Standard fees for trading are 0.10 percent to 0.20 percent at Bitfinex. Fees range from 0.10% to 0.50 percent for the majority of low volume traders using the Coinbase Pro platform.10
Coinbase provides basic active, mobile and trading platforms. Bitfinex also offers similar platforms for selling and buying cryptocurrency.
Coinbase is closely linked to that of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin and Bitfinex is closely associated with Tether (USDT).
Coinbase as well as Bitfinex have both paid penalties for authorities from the U.S. government.
Conclusion
To conclude the review, we can say that Bitfinex is one of the largest exchanges with 200+ pairs listed. It has its own native token Leo with a good market capitalization.
Even with troubled history, it managed to survive with excellent trading volume. If you are a pro trader with big funds, Bitfinex can be a good option though they are not a regulated broker.
But still the argument is open whether Bitfinex is a safe broker or not due to its past hacking incidents. We are neither recommending nor forbidding you to trade with Bitfinex. If you are reading these concluding remarks, it means you have read the review. Decision is at your disposal whether to choose Bitfinex or not.
