Bitfinex is part of iFinex Inc, a group registered in the British Virgin Islands but headquartered in Hong Kong. Their digital asset exchange is well-reputed for its impressive services and high levels of liquidity. Bitfinex is one of the top 50 exchanges by trading volume, but in terms of quality, longevity, and popularity, it’s easily a top 10 overall exchange. The platform was founded all the way back in 2012 by Raphael Nicolle, a Parisian IT expert and Bitcoin-enthusiast.
The Positives
High liquidity and a large number of users
Many spot, margin, and funding markets
Full-customisable interfaces and applications for web and mobile
There are plenty of affiliate rewards to be had through their platform
Suitable for intermediate and advanced traders
Whilst many cryptocurrencies are available, they have been focused on BTC for 8 years now, allowing them to represent more than 6% of all BTC trades each day
99.5% of all crypto funds are stored in hard wallets to increase security
Great range of order types
Market
Limit
Stop
Trailing stop
Fill or kill
One cancels other (OCO)
Post-only limit order
Hidden order
Bitfinex offers an OTC Desk where users can make P2P trades and avoid going through a centralized order book
Thanks to partnerships with Mercuryo and OWNR, users are now able to purchase crypto with their credit cards. More information on deposits can be found here.
The Negatives
Leverage is only available up to 3.3x, a tiny amount compared to some other exchanges
US investors are not able to use the Bitfinex service
Not suitable for novice crypto-traders
They’ve been the victim of major hacks in the past
Email support only
It can take up to 2 months to verify your account
Other exchanges quickly overtook and outgrew Bitfinex, which was once the biggest platform for trading BTC, so it asks the question – what went wrong?
Which cryptocurrencies are available?
There are more than 160 different cryptocurrencies available on Bitfinex, with 297 market pairings to choose from.
We’re not going to list all of these pairings, but we will say that since the platform is aimed at experienced BTC traders, you will find a lot of useful BTC pairings here.
Some information about fees
Exchange Fees on Bitfinex are pretty fair, in fact, their taker fee is below the industry average of 0.25% and for a centralized exchange, a relatively low 0.1% maker fee is a good indicator of the platform’s liquidity.
Withdrawal Fee: BTC 0.0004
Taker Fee: 0.2%
Maker Fee: 0.1%
The good news is for regular traders who deal in big amounts, there are lucrative discounts to be had…
For those who are trading altcoins, here are some more withdrawal fees.
The final say
Bitfinex has been established for a long time and has built a solid reputation as a reliable provider of crypto-trading services for investors and experienced traders, despite major hacks in 2015 and 2016 (after which they paid back all users). The platform can boast fantastic liquidity, especially for USD and BTC. Overall, the features make it very useful for some advanced users, but too complicated for some beginners.
Originally posted on https://decentralised.africa/
