Bitfinex Review 2024

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange offering access to investing, trading and exchanging digital assets. The company was founded in 2012 and soon gained popularity among traders, especially the professionals. Registered users have access to a wide range of digital currencies and financial instruments, and also a market analytics section. The daily trading volume at the end of 2021 amounts to around 45,000 BTC.

Bitfinex crypto exchange ranking

Total score	8.9
Commissions	9
Security and regulation	9
Markets	10
Passive income	9
Account opening	9
Deposit and withdrawal	8
Trading platforms	7
Analytics	3
Education	0
Customer support	8
Bonuses	8

Bitfinex pros and cons

Basic information

The exchange features a flexible commissions and fees system, which range depending on the 30-day trading volumes and the number of tokens held in the account. Reduction of the commission in case of increase of the trading volume during a month is one of the key features. Let’s take a closer look.

Trading commissions

Trading commissions on Bitfinex depend on the trading volume. Below we provide a table to give you an idea of the general dynamics. However, for details you will need to visit the exchange’s website.

Non-trading commissions

The first category of payments is the deposit fee. There are no additional fees for crediting cryptocurrency to the account, but a 0.1% fee is charged if you work with fiat currency (minimum USD 60). If you don’t trade at the exchange, you will have to pay the fee for the account on which you hold tokens. The second category of payments is the withdrawal fee, charged directly by the Bitfinex platform. In this case, cryptocurrency, the network that is being used and the withdrawal option being used are the determining factors:

• here is a 0.1% deposit fee on the transaction value. The minimum fee is USD 60;
• For express withdrawal to a bank account, users will have to pay 1% of the total amount or a fixed fee of $100;
• Transfers of crypto assets to the addresses and accounts of other users inside the exchange are not charged with a fee.

Lending rates of Bitfinex Borrow

We would also like to take notice of the fees for using P2P platforms for loans on Bitfinex Borrow. In this case, the fees are charged twice:

• In case the collateral is made (the amount that equals to the maker’s fee);
• At the time of repayment of the borrowed funds.

In order to get the collateral back, you need to recall the position and pay the maker’s fee once again. Interest rate is paid additionally. The amount varies depending on the loan and is selected by the system automatically. However, you can choose the indicator independently as well – between floating and fixed. The interest rate is calculated individually for each asset. In order to find out the amount of the fee, all you need to do is access the Bitfinex Borrow page, select an asset for borrowing, position of the collateral, period of loan and the interest rate (fixed or floating).

Over-the-counter trading is a separate line of the fee. In this case, the fee is not charged on transactions via the over-the-counter platform of the exchange. In order to use the service of OTC transactions, the user and the other party to the trade must pay a fee in the amount of 10 basis points.

Average commission compared to competitors

Notably, with USD 30 million monthly turnover for the taker and USD 7.5 million for the maker on the Bitfinex, the fee will amount to 0.001% and 0.0001% respectively. This fact proves that the exchange focuses on large traders with high trading volumes.

The average rate of the fees among the three exchanges is 0.13% for makers and 0.16% for takers respectively. Therefore, we were able to conclude that commissions and fees of Bitfinex, when compared to other cryptocurrency exchanges are approximately the same, but with a large trading volume they can be radically reduced.

Margin lending

There is a separate fee for the margin lending services. In this case, the fee includes the interest rate charge on a per-second basis. The interest rate can be chosen in the Financing section or you can choose the automatic value.

As a recipient of financing, you need to pay 15% commission from the total return. And if you are performing financing in the form of a concealed offer (i.e. the order will not be shown in the order book, Taker’s fee is applied to it), the commission will be 18%.

As a recipient of financing, you need to pay 15% commission from the total return. And if you are performing financing in the form of a concealed offer (i.e. the order will not be shown in the order book, Taker’s fee is applied to it), the commission will be 18%.

Commissions for working with derivatives are also calculated separately. In this case, the position of the order – taker or maker – and, accordingly, receipt of the reward or payment of the commission are the determining factors.

The reward is credited to the maker in case the order is closed, which adds liquidity to your order book. Commission is paid in case the taker withdraws liquidity from your order book by placing an order against another position.

Notably, the rates are lower than at the other exchanges.

Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange is owned by iFinex, which is currently registered in the British Virgin Island under company number 1 774 852. In the entire time of the exchange operation, there were two major hacker attacks in 2015-2016, with the total damage for the client amounting to $73.5 million.

However, the platform’s administration considerably improved the level of security of personal data and finances of the users:

• Two-factor authentication is mandatory;
• There is a number of options that are automatically set up, and also an additional range of security that can be chosen at the user’s desire (email encryption, additional password system, etc.);
• Extended features of API keys;
• Blocking transactions from a new IP address;
• Alerts about suspicious activity on the account.

The system of storage of digital assets was also optimized. Now the coins are held in cold wallets, with approximately 0.5% of the total volume of funds held in hot wallets and available for everyday use.

There is additional protection against DDoS attacks, which provides for seamless operation of the service

The platform features a huge number of digital and fiat assets, and offers access to trading derivatives and futures. Every trader has approximately the same range of available instruments, which is expanded as the new levels of verifications are passed.

In recent years, the exchange has shown stable growth of trading volumes. It is among the TOP 10 exchanges in terms of this indicator.

Pros and cons of market diversity on Bitfinex

Bitfinex markets

Cryptocurrencies (spot)

The platform offers access to 328 currency pairs, including:

• the group of the most popular assets – Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum, IOTA and others;
• around 30 rather exotic coins – Golem, Lympo, Aragon, etc.;
• a wide range of assets that enjoy average popularity.

The exchange features classic pairs with digital and fiat currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY), as well as rather interesting combinations of altcoins with each other. And there is also a group of stablecoins (DAI, USDK, EOSDT, USDC).

There are several passive income options currently available at Bitfinex exchange. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Staking on Bitfinex

Staking – storing the coins based on the Proof of Stake algorithm, is the first and a rather popular option. Several coins are available for staking at the moment: EOS, Tezos, Algo, TRX, Atom by Cosmos and VSYS owned by the V Systems platform. Over the next several years, the exchange plans to increase the number of coins, thus expanding passive income opportunities.

One of the developers, Paolo Ardoino, claims that the average return rate of VSYS reached 10% in the past year, while the indicator of other coins barely exceeds 2%. In order to start earning, you need to open the Staking page and select the asset. Currently, 10 separate positions with different conditions are available as of today.

After you’ve chosen the digital token, you need to fund the account. You can buy the asset at the exchange with the Exchange wallet. Notably, you can buy tokens both at Bitfinex and other platforms. The reward for staking will be credited once a week, depending on the number of purchased coins.

In order to earn passive income, you need to buy the asset for the amount that makes the reward amount at least $0.10 (ten cents). You can perform all necessary calculations on the Staking page by using the calculator form.

Margin financing on Bitfinex

Margin financing, when you provide your own funds for other traders to use and get a reward in the form of interest rate from the amount, is another rather effective passive income option. For the borrower, this system works simply as margin trading on any platform. At that, your funds are provisionally secure, as the assets of his/her wallet is a form of collateral. In case of a threat of a margin call (when the loss exceeds the established amount of minimum security or the user does not fund his/her wallet, the position will be closed automatically), the loan principal will be credited to the creditor’s account.

In order to start financing other users, a trader needs to choose an asset, for which the loans will be provided, in the Financing section.

The next step is the transfer of funds to the Funding wallet. You can start margin crediting from $50 or an equivalent amount in cryptocurrency. Everything else is very simple: choose the term and interest rate at which you are prepared to provide funds for traders to use. Notably, you can choose a period of 2-30 days.

You can monitor loan history and payments on them in the Reports tab.

Before starting to trade cryptocurrency or futures at this exchange, you will need to register and open an account. The procedure is simple and clear. Registration will take 10 minutes at the most. All you have to do is clearly follow the pop-up prompts on the website.

Account opening on Bitfinex

Residents of which countries can trade at the exchange?

We concluded that the platform enjoys great popularity among traders from all over the world. The largest number of users registered at the exchange are from the USA, Mexico, India, Argentina, Russia, Canada, China, Switzerland, Hong Kong. However, residents of Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and Crimea cannot use the exchange for trading and making money.

How to open an account on Bitfinex:
a step-by-step guide

Step

1

Open the Homepage of the exchange and select Sign Up right in the center of the screen.

Step

2

Here, you need to fill out a user questionnaire and come up with a password. You will also need to choose the time zone you prefer to work in.

Specifics of account verification

Account verification is an important stage of preparing for the trading. The exchange envisages several levels of verification: basic, basic plus, intermediate and full.

After registration, you are assigned the first level of verification and can deposit cryptocurrency to your account and withdraw it. Notably, the account verification procedures for individual and corporate accounts are different.

Documents for verification:

If you are planning to deposit/withdraw fiat currency, use stablecoins, and also have expanded trading options, you will need to pass full verification.

In order to do that:

• Choose Manage Account in the menu on the left of the screen, and then select Verification.
• Depending on whether you are a private person or a legal entity, choose the account type: individual or corporate.
• Select the level of verification you’d like to pass at the next step.

The time frame for the verification procedure depends on the chosen level. For Basic Plus it will take a few minutes, while Intermediate or Full verification may take 2-3 working days (depending on the workload of the system).

Minimum deposit on Bitfinex

Compared to similar crypto exchanges, this is the lowest indicator available for a wide range of users.

Bitfinex Account Types

As we’ve already established, there are two account types (Individual and Corporate) and three wallets. Let’s review them in detail.

The account category can be chosen during account verification, when you register as a private person or a legal entity. The differentiation of the user type implies that there is a wider range of available instruments and derivatives for the latter.

On both accounts, three wallets are available, providing for an opportunity to work in different market segments:

Exchange
is designed for trading without leverage and lending.

Margin
is available for the transactions with application of margin trading and also for derivatives.

Funding
can be used for lending to other traders and earning passive income.

Notably, you can move the funds between the wallets with zero commission using the quick transfer feature, which you can find on the main wallet page.

Comparison of trading accounts on Bitfinex

• Click on the corresponding button in the upper right corner;
• Select an asset;
• Form the address of the wallet, where the transactions will be performed.

Notably, you can replenish any of the three wallets using this option.

The transactions meet all the criteria of a modern exchange in terms of their speed, but experience a certain dependence on the load in the blockchain network. Withdrawal follows the same principle:

• On the Withdrawal page, specify the account number, number of cryptocurrencies (US dollar equivalent will be calculated automatically), and also select the wallet you want to withdraw funds from.
• Select Request Withdrawal and wait for the confirmation of the system.

• Go to Deposits tab;
• Choose currency;
• Create a notice of deposit, specifying the amount and address of the wallet.

The notice will be considered by the support system within 2 days and the details, where to send the funds will be sent to email. They will be credited to the wallet within 3-5 working days (as there could be delays on the part of the intermediary bank). Withdrawals are performed based on the same algorithm.

Deposit and withdrawal transactions are performed very easily and quickly.

Deposit and withdrawal options

You can work on Bitfinex crypto exchange either using a web version or by downloading an application for mobile devices. Initially, the trading terminal of the platform was designed for working only on PCs, but later was adjusted to mobile devices. There is no special application for working from a computer.

Pros and cons

Comparative table of features

Comparison with the competition

Trading platforms specs

• Limit order enables you to buy or sell assets at your chosen price.
• Market order is designed to close the position immediately against the best price available
• Stop order closes the position as soon as the price reaches the specified value.
• Stop-limit order closes a position when the price of the asset reaches a predetermined value.
• Trailing stop order executes once the market moves against you by a certain price, known as the price distance. It can be used for margin trading to preserve profit.
• FOK is a limit order that must be filled immediately at a specific price (executed or cancelled).
• IOC ensures partial execution of the order.
• Reduced orders. Buy/sell in case of reduction of an open position.
• Interchangeable. This is a pair of orders, where if one is filled the other one is automatically closed.
• Hidden order does not appear in the order book, the commission is calculated on the taker’s rate.
• Scaled order is an algorithm designed for placing multiple orders across a user-determined price range.

You can also use Honey Framework, an adjacent platform, which can be used for automatic opening of positions and full automation of trading in general. The application has an open source and can be used for customization of the orders.

Two types of charts are available for comfortable trading at the exchange: main and the one showing position depths.

Traders can work with Bitfinex using a web platform and a mobile application. Let’s review the specifics of each option.

Bitfinex Web platform

The web version of the service is rather simple, while containing all necessary features for comfortable trading. Starting from the Home Page, everything is structured by categories and groups. The main screen features the window of sale, margin trading, purchase of assets and you can also choose charts and see the position of a specific asset. Order book, available orders and your order history are also featured here. There is a Tour feature in the upper right corner as well. By using it, you will be able to quickly find a chart or understand the placement of the positions. The main categories and the search box are in the website header.

Bitfinex mobile platform

The mobile application of the exchange is neat and user-friendly. All key features are structured in the bottom panel: trading, derivatives, financing, wallets and account settings.

Every aspect is customizable. For example, you can enter an asset in the search and the system will select all pairs with it. In order to view the asset’s dynamics, all you have to do is click on it or on the corresponding currency pair and the system will redirect you to another page: on the top we will see basic data on the cryptocurrency, then the price chart and the order book and orders are at the bottom. You can gain access to your account on the app by entering your username and password and then add API key. The majority of traders are very happy with the user interface, pointing to its usability and simplicity.

The company’s blog with a huge volume of information is one of the structural categories of the cryptocurrency exchange. It features market statistics, posts on social media, an app for reporting, and also the news about the latest changes on the platform. On the exchange’s blog you will find information about the key changes in the market, a trading guide and explanation of terminology for beginners, as well as information on the trading trends for a specific period.

Despite that the total number of publications on the blog is quite high, they are not of regular nature. In addition to the general news, only update logs for the platform, applications and services are published regularly.

For those who love to compete and wish to compare their achievements with the results of other traders, Bitfinex has a Leaderboard that shows traders who gave their consent to it. The lists are anonymous, but each name in the table is assigned to one and the same user.

There are short video tutorials on the YouTube channel of the exchange on selecting and opening/closing orders, trading at the exchange in general. On the pages of the help center, you will find information about working with the platform. However, there are no detailed educational materials “from scratch” (webinars, articles, etc.). The reason is that the exchange focuses on professional traders, not beginners

For example, you can learn about the features of Bitfinex Borrow by watching five animated films in English with an option of subtitles with automatic translation.

There are two ways to contact customer support:

• Live chat – you can find the icon in the bottom right corner;
• Email – you will need to click on the Send Request button in the upper right corner.

Our experience showed that the specialists of customer support respond to the questions of the users.

Notably, you can only find information about the use of the exchange on the support pages, although it would have been nice in this case to feature short tutorials, which would have been naturally integrated into questions.

Customer support languages

Customer support is available in Russian, English, Spanish, Turkish and Chinese.

As for the bonus offers of the crypto exchange, there are the following:

• Affiliate program where you can invite new users and get a reward. In this case the reward is credited not only for the people who registered using your referral link, but also the people who they invited.
• Use of UNUS SED LEO tokens. Their owners get a 0.05% discount for each 10,000 Tether (USDt) in LEO tokens. The maximum discount of 5% is reached if you have 1 million USDt in LEO tokens over the previous month.
• Developer reward for those who integrate their instrument or product into the trader’s library.

All bonuses are credited once a week.