Bitfinex Review 2024
Bitfinex is a digital trading platform that provides services to cryptocurrency traders and liquidity providers. Its goal is to make available the best cryptocurrency trading experience. The platform was founded in 2012 and is considered one of the oldest crypto exchanges. Bitfinex also has an outstanding team with a lot of years of experience in the field of blockchain technologies.
The crypto exchange provides services of peer-to-peer financing, spot and margin trading, derivatives trading, etc.
Registration and account verification
Registration on the crypto exchange does not present any difficulties. Account creation instructions are the next:
- Enter Bitfinex site and click the Sign Up button in the upper right corner or in the center of the page;
Bitfinex registration first step - Enter username, email address and password. Then select country of residence from the list and enter referral code (if available), then click Sign Up;
Personal details and password - On the next opened page the user will see a suggestion to enable Google Two-Factor Authentication to secure the account. There are download links for Google Authenticator application here. After filling up the form click Continue;
Proposal to enable 2FA - To continue setting up 2FA, you need to scan the QR-code with the Google Authenticator app (uploading App Store for iOS devices and Google Play Store for Android devices);
Setting up 2FA - Enter the received 6-digit code and wait for confirmation of two-factor authentication by clicking Activate token 2FA Now;
Two-factor authentication confirmation - Confirm email address to complete registration (recommended to use the same internet browser as in previous steps);
Verify Email Address - Then you’ll see a message stating that everything is OK and you can log into your account by clicking Login.
Account Login entry
To gain access to more features of the platform, you need to go through the identity verification procedure. The exchange offers 4 levels of verification. Comparison of verification levels and their functionality is presented in the table.
| Functions | Basic | Basic Plus | Intermediate | Full |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spot and margin trading | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| OTC | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Derivatives Trading | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Margin financing | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Lending Pro | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bitfinex Borrow | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Loan products (Celsius) | ✔ | ✔ | ||
| Cryptocurrency transfers | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bank transfers (fiat) | ✔ | |||
| No maximum withdrawal limits | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Staking Rewards | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Bitfinex Pay | ✔ | ✔ |
To upgrade the verification level to the Basic Plus, you need to upload to the exchange the following documents:
- Identity card (passport, driver’s license);
- Biometric photo (selfie);
- Phone number.
To increase the verification level to Intermediate to Basic Plus you have additionally provide these documents and make the next actions:
- The second photo ID;
- Address confirmation;
- Fill out a financial questionnaire;
- Fill out a KYC form.
Account protection
Bitfinex offers various security settings. You can activate them in the Security tab. Here you can continue setting up 2FA if it was not completed during the registration process.
Among the security tools offered by the platform are:
- Enabling two-factor authentication (2FA), which is a prerequisite;
- Blocking withdrawals if you log into your account from a new IP address;
- Creating a phrase to confirm withdrawals;
- Block or disable withdrawal address for all currencies;
- Enabling PGP Encryption of email;
- Disabling the open session feature when working from a public computer or if you don’t want to stay logged in for a long time;
- Restricting access to your account by IP address.
The account is registered. What’s next?
Available deposit and withdrawal methods
The crypto exchange allows you to deposit funds in fiat (USD / EUR / GBP /JPY / CNH) and cryptocurrencies (their list is presented on the page Currencies and Tokens – Bitfinex Help Center). You can fund your account in several ways:
- By payment card;
- Bank transfer;
- Fiat and cryptocurrencies.
The Minimum amount of cryptocurrency to replenish Bitfinex accoung – $5. This limit is set to to avoid processing small transactions.
As for limits on fiat currencies, they depend on currency and user verification level. For users who have passed full verification the minimum amount of funds for replenishing with a bank transfer is:
- 10 thousand (USD, EUR, GBP);
- 1 million JPY;
- 75 thousand CNH.
Trading conditions and instruments available on Bitfinex
The exchange provides the following trading conditions and instruments:
- Spot and margin trading;
- Derivatives trading;
- Competitive fees and limits.
Spot market
Bitfinex provides spot trading without leverage. There is a large selection of trading pairs with cryptocurrencies and stablecoins (BTC/LTC, BTC/ETH, BTC/ATOM, BTC/ADA, BTC/USDt, BTC/USDС, etc.), as well as pairs with fiat money (BTC/USD, BTC/EUR, BTC/JPY, BTC/GBP and more).
Margin Trading
Bitfinex offers margin trading and margin lending. The platform allows you to trade with leverage up to 10x. Accounts created after March 1st, 2022 are required to pass the Intermediate verification level to access margin trading. Previously created accounts do not need to be upgraded.
Derivatives
Derivatives trading on Bitfinex is only available to users who have passed Intermediate verification or higher one.
There are two options for transferring Bitcoin and/or USDt tokens from a margin wallet to a derivatives wallet:
- Quick transfer;
- Balances option.
For trading derivatives:
- Go to the Derivatives page, select the desired pair;
- Create an order by specifying its type, price and amount of crypto;
- Drag the slider to select the leverage to trade. Leverage will determine the amount of collateral allocated. The maximum leverage for derivatives trading is up to 100x (depending on the trading pair);
- Press Derivative Buy or Derivative Sell.
Commissions and limits
Bifinex operates on a taker-maker commission model. Those who fulfill existing orders are called takers. Traders placing new limit orders are makers.
How to trade on Bitfinex
To buy and sell on Bitfinex, just follow a simple guide:
- Enter the trading terminal of Bitfinex;
- Select a trading pair. To do this: enter the desired ticker in the widget’s search bar or use the drop-down menu on the left side of the terminal;
- On the same trading page, there is an order form that you need to fill out (enter the details of the trade operation);
- Select Order. If the limit order type is set, you have specify the size of the oreder and its price. You can use the slider to set the percentage of used funds: for buying (left side) or selling (right side). Then place an order by clicking on the Exchange Buy or Exchange Sell button. If the market order type is selected, it will be executed at the current market price (you do not need to specify a price);
- After the order is executed, the funds will be credited to the internal wallet.
Additional services of the Bitfinex exchange
In addition to spot/margin trading and derivatives trading, Bitfinex offers some additional ways to earn money:
- Staking;
- Crypto lending;
- Affiliate program.
Staking
Bitfinex allows you to earn passive income with staking. Traders do not need any technical knowledge to work with it option. It is done automatically in several steps:
- Select digital token for staking;
- Depositing the selected digital token to your Bitfinex account;
- Receive weekly rewards.
The platform calculator allows you to calculate the amount of reward depending on the type and number of tokens you staked. You can see the estimated annual amount of rewards below Supported Digital Tokens for such coins as: Tron (TRX), EOS (EOS), Tezos (XTZ), COSMOS (ATOM), Algorand (ALGO), Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), Cardano (ADA), Polkadot ( DOT), Ethereum 2 (ETH2), Kusama (KSM).
There is no minimum value for participation in staking on the platform. However, to avoid overburdening the system, there is a minimum staking reward that can be earned ($0.50).
Crypto loan
The exchange provides a P2P platform called Bitfinex Borrow which allows users to borrow funds from their peers using cryptoassets as collateral.
To get started with the Bitfinex Borrow platform, you need to:
- Deposit the required collateral to the margin wallet;
- Select currency and specify a loan amount;
- Set conditions and press Borrow;
- Wait for the loan to be credited to the margin account.
There are no restrictions on funds using by borrowers on Bitfinex. Loan duration and interest rates can be customized depending on the needs of the borrower.
The amount of funds can be borrowed depends on the amount and type of collateral the user holds, but no more than $250,000. You can use the site calculator to calculate the loan amount and margin requirements.
Affiliate program
Any user of the exchange can invite the new ones with Bitfinex Affiliate Program and get rewarded. To do this you need to generate unique links on the information panel of the Affiliate Program and share them. Anyone who registers using the user’s link will become his referral.
In addition, the user will earn interest on trading and margin funding fees from all three levels in his referral network.
The rewards scheme is presented at Affiliate Program page. You can increase the amount of rewards from affiliate income using multipliers. The conditions are:
- Account verification;
- UNUS, SED, LEO tokens presence;
- Numbers of followers and activity in social networks.
Mobile Application
You can use the Bitfinex mobile application to view positions, open orders, trading history. The app is available on iOS and Android operating systems (downloadable from App Store or Google Play Store).
Reviews
Since the exchange has been operating for a long time, you can find quite a lot of reviews on its work. In positive reviews Trustpilot users feature:
- Low commissions;
- User friendly interface;
- Quick support solution.
Negative reviews are related to:
- Long withdrawal of funds, problems with withdrawal;
- Problems accessing the deposit;
- Complex and lengthy identity verification.
Pros and cons
The pros and cons of the exchange can be summarized as follows.
FAQ
Since then, the exchange team has been improving security. Bitfinex supports two-factor authentication (2FA) and whitelisting of wallet addresses, and 99.5% of user funds are stored in multi-signature cold storages.
The exchange has also implemented constant account monitoring to help spot any suspicious activity. It keeps track of login details and IP addresses. Users can block their accounts if they suspect that their information has been compromised.
If customers wish to withdraw larger amounts of crypto, they have to go through a more rigorous verification process. These are standard anti-money laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC) and Counter Terrorist Financing (CTF) measures.
Bitfinex also uses several internal security features such as DDoS protection and real-time data backup.
