Bitfinex Review for Canada 2024

Bitfinex, one of the veteran cryptocurrency exchanges founded right after the outset of the cryptocurrency revolution, offers a high liquidity trading platform and worldwide access to a wide range of innovative cryptocurrency services.

However, what appears to be the ideal all-in-one location for experienced traders may come at a cost. Namely, aside from the low fees and wide range of trading pairs, there is a cloud of controversy surrounding this seasoned exchange.

More on this, as well as on the platform’s advanced features, can be found in our Bitfinex review.

About the Bitfinex Exchange

Founded in the British Virgin Islands by iFinex inc. in 2012, Bitfinex is one of the world’s largest Bitcoin and cryptocurrency platforms by trading volume. This Hong Kong-based crypto exchange provides a user-friendly interface with neatly arranged trading tools and advanced charting tools aimed at professional traders in just a few tabs – one for traders and one for lenders. 

Cryptocurrency investors can arrange their workplace using the fully configurable interface. Crypto traders can easily create their layouts, pick from various themes, and set up notifications, among other things.

Some of the most popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP), Eos (EOS), Litecoin (LTC), Dash (DASH), or Neo (NEO), can be traded on the Bitfinex exchange with little slippage, thanks to their crowded order books with top-tier liquidity. Bitfinex also offers a diverse range of order types to enable investors to reap the benefits of any lucrative deal.

Supported Cryptocurrencies

Bitfinex supports various cryptocurrencies, ranging from the most popular and liquid ones like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) to some lesser-known crypto projects. Since the exchange is proactive in offering the most in-demand currencies, you should have no trouble finding the best currency for your trades on Bitfinex.

Bitfinex Trading Fees and Limits

Bitfinex employs a maker/taker fee scheme, calculated upon the basis of the trader’s 30-day trading volume or USD equivalent.

According to this fee model, the market maker pays from 0.000% to 0.100% for the crypto to crypto, crypto to stablecoin, or crypto to fiat trades, while the taker fee for these trades ranges from 0.055% to 0.200%. 

Regarding derivatives trading, the market maker fee is 0.0200%, while the taker fee is 0.0650%. 

Bitfinex Fees for Withdrawals and Deposits

Funding your account on Bitfinex comes free of charge. However, if you want to move your cryptos from the platform, you’ll need to pay a withdrawal fee to the respective coin’s blockchain network. 

Payment Methods

Bitfinex allows you to fund your account or purchase cryptocurrency with a credit card, wire transfer, or bank account. Users can also deposit fiat money into their accounts through bank transfers in the following fiat currencies: EUR, JPY, GBP, and USD.

Features

Bitfinex offers a myriad of advanced and volatile trading products, including an OTC (Over-the-Counter) trading desk, peer-to-peer market (P2P), margin trading with up to 10x leverage, crypto lending and borrowing programs, and more. Here’s an overview of some of this exchange’s most popular features and services. 

The Scaled Orders Tool

Since placing multiple trading orders is often inefficient and time-consuming, Bitfinex developers have made an effort to make this operation more streamlined and efficient. The team behind Bitfinex has developed a tool called Scaled Orders to achieve this aim. It is an algorithmic order type that allows traders to spend more time focusing on strategy rather than entering orders into the system manually.

The Scaled Orders tool automatically generates numerous limit orders within a user-defined price bracket. On the other hand, traders still have complete control over the order types and placement in the order book.

Derivatives and Margin Trading

Users can trade derivative products on Bitfinex. Perpetual contracts are currently available on this platform, and more are in the pipeline. Trading derivative products require using a Derivative Wallet funded with USDT, a digital token generated by converting USDT to another currency, like BTC. 

Furthermore, the Bitfinex peer-to-peer margin funding platform allows customers to trade with up to 10x leverage. Users can either place an order for the specified amount and timing or establish an order book position to borrow funds. Bitfinex will borrow funds on their behalf at the lowest available price.

Margin Funding

It is possible to earn interest on fiat and digital assets by lending funds to traders who wish to trade cryptos with leverage on Bitfinex. Loans are available in any currency or asset supported on Bitfinex for any period that the user chooses. Additionally, users can use the Auto-Renew option to automatically renew the trading offers after they expire.

Paper Trading

The Paper Trading tool on Bitfinex enables crypto investors to test trading strategies in a virtual market setting without investing actual money. Paper trading operates based on sub-accounts, which replicate the trading functionality of the user’s master account.

Lending Pro

If you’re looking for a sophisticated loan management tool that can be customized based on your needs and market conditions, Bitfinex’s Lending Pro is for you. With this instrument, you can easily manage your lending strategies and analyze your performance on the market by selecting your preferable rates and quantities (minimum rate, fixed-rate, fixed amount, max offer amount, etc.).

The Lending Pro feature is accessible for all digital assets offered for margin trading on Bitfinex. You can effortlessly configure a separate setup for every digital item and create a specific lending scheme for each coin in your portfolio.

Is Bitfinex.com Safe to Use?

Bitfinex places a high value on its customers’ assets and personal information security. To begin with, you’ll need to have a verified account to start trading on Bitfinex. Bitfinex’s verification procedure complies with Know Your Client (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF) laws and regulations.

Safety measures include the Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) and the two-factor authentication protocol (2FA), which offer an extra layer of protection to your account and secure critical processes like logging in, creating API keys, and withdrawing funds. 

You can also build API keys with advanced read/write rights on feature-by-feature grounds. The sophisticated verification tools and withdrawal protection software are included to allow safe platform registration and prevent hacking attempts.

Finally, encrypted email communication (PGP) adds privacy and protection to users’ accounts, private data, and payments.

When it comes to the security of funds, the vast bulk of the platform’s assets is held in multi-signature cold wallets. Only about 0.5% of crypto assets are available in hot wallets, which is sufficient for the daily operation of the exchange. The cold wallets are not accessible from the platform or its servers.

The Bitfinex Hacking Incident and Legal Issues

On August 2nd, 2016, Bitfinex informed its users that the platform’s security had been breached. This event caused the exchange executives to stop all withdrawals, deposits, and trading operations. During this hacking attack, cyber-criminals moved more than 120,000 bitcoins (worth about $351,000 at the time) to a new digital wallet. 

To soften the impact of the security breach, Bitfinex distributed the loss across all customers, leading to an overall loss of 36% of clients’ funds. Furthermore, the exchange compensated each impacted trader with 1 BFX for each US dollar lost due to the hacking event.

Four years later, Bitfinex management decided to offer a reward of 5% of the recovered assets to anyone who could provide them with a lead to the hackers or even to the hackers themselves if they returned their loot. Bitfinex was only able to recover 27.7 BTC thanks to the US law enforcement efforts. 

Regrettably, the controversy surrounding this exchange does not end there. The problems at Bitfinex keep getting messier as more suspicious situations arise with the stablecoin Tether. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Bitfinex and Tether over $42 million for not wholly supporting the USDT stablecoin and violating the agency’s mandate.

Customer Support

The Bitfinex support staff consists of analytical thinkers, expert traders, and Bitfinex product specialists available 24/7 for all traders. 

Institutional and large volume investors can benefit from a specialized staff of customer support experts. Their priority is corporate clients’ issues, and they respond to support requests quickly and pragmatically.

If you have a more general query as an individual trader, the Bitfinex Live Chat and the Bitfinex community boards are helpful places to look for an answer. Alternatively, you can file an email request through the exchange’s support page. 

Bitfinex Pros and Cons

Here are the good and not-so-good sides of trading on this platform:

Pros

• Cold storage for 99.5% of users’ funds;
• Relatively low fees;
• Over 200 trading pairs;
• A wide variety of advanced trading tools;
• Margin trading support with up to 10x leverage;
• Passive income options through the crypto lending and the affiliate program;
• Paper Trading functionality for new users who can try the exchange without investing real money;
• Several options to become eligible for a trading fee rebate.

Cons

• Not suitable for beginners in crypto trading;
• The platform had a security breach in 2016, followed by legal issues regarding Tether.

The Bottom Line 

Bitfinex crypto exchange, a crypto industry veteran, aims to deliver the best cryptocurrency trading experience possible for professional traders and liquidity providers worldwide.

Nonetheless, despite the exchange’s attempts to establish a secure and diverse trading environment, there have been some notable security breaches and legal issues in Bitfinex’s history. These instances could make some traders feel uneasy about using this platform.

On the other hand, Bitfinex appears to have found a strategy to effectively maneuver its way out of the controversy and into the top ten list of most liquid exchanges, according to Coinmarketcap. By the look of things, Bitfinex’s experienced traders are fully aware of the volatility of their products and continue to brave the risks of online crypto trading.

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