If you are a seasoned investor in the cryptocurrency market, surely the name Bitfinex is no longer unfamiliar. With a long history, this exchange has attracted a large number of users globally. However, behind that glory also hides turbulent stories and many controversies about the legality and safety of this platform. So what really is Bitfinex? Is this exchange trustworthy for cryptocurrency trading? Let’s find out now with Crypto568.
What is Bitfinex?
Born in 2012, Bitfinex is the brainchild of iFinex Inc., quickly asserting its position as a giant in the cryptocurrency trading industry. With a Bitcoin trading market share of more than 10%, Bitfinex has become a trusted destination for millions of investors globally. Not only stopping at Bitcoin trading, Bitfinex has expanded its scope of operations to the field of liquidity and margin swaps, meeting the diverse needs of professional investors.
Born in the British Virgin Islands but with an international identity with headquarters stretching from Taiwan, London to Hong Kong, Bitfinex has become a true cryptocurrency empire. With a talented executive team from all over the world, this exchange has quickly affirmed its position on the global cryptocurrency map.
However, Bitfinex’s development journey has not been smooth. In 2016, an earthquake shook this exchange when 120,000 Bitcoins, a huge wealth, suddenly “evaporated” due to a sophisticated cyber attack. Faced with that situation, Bitfinex quickly took corrective measures by transferring all assets to a cold wallet system, a state-of-the-art security fortress to ensure absolute safety for users’ capital.
Despite experiencing a huge shock, Bitfinex still resiliently stood up and continued to assert its position on the cryptocurrency exchange, alongside big names like Bittrex, Binance and Cryptopia. In April 2017, an important milestone was set when Bitfinex fully compensated customers who suffered losses in the attack, affirming transparency and accountability.
Bitfinex Features
Bitfinex is a comprehensive financial ecosystem, providing users with a wide range of services. With three core functions such as trading a variety of cryptocurrencies, margin and lending services with financial leverage, Bitfinex is popular with many investors. With a diverse ecosystem, Bitfinex has become a digital financial “supermarket”, meeting all investors’ needs. Here are some outstanding features of Bitfinex:
- Diverse currencies, instant transactions: Bitfinex is proud to be one of the exchanges that support the largest number of cryptocurrencies on the market. Your portfolio will be more diverse than ever, with the ability to quickly, conveniently trade popular cryptocurrencies.
- Margin trading: With its unique margin trading feature, Bitfinex opens up opportunities to increase profits for investors. You can borrow capital many times the deposit amount to participate in trading, thereby increasing your profit potential. Bitfinex’s smart P2P lending system automatically connects you with suitable lenders for easy access to capital.
- Comprehensive trading experience on phones: Bitfinex gives users an optimal trading experience with a friendly, easy-to-use interface that can be customized according to personal preferences. Mobile applications on both iOS and Android operating systems help you manage assets anytime, anywhere.
Trading fees on Bitfinex
Bitfinex, as one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, is always committed to providing customers with the best service with competitive fees. You can refer to the costs of the services that Bitfinex provides to get an overview and make wise investment decisions:
Transaction fees
- Maker fee: Only from 0.1% for investors with large trading volume, creating favorable conditions for order book building.
- Matching fee (taker): 0.2% is a fairly competitive fee compared to the market, helping you make buying and selling transactions quickly.
Deposit fee: Completely free when depositing cryptocurrency directly into Bitfinex wallet. Only 0.1% (minimum $20) when depositing money via bank account.
Withdrawal fees: Bitfinex applies fixed withdrawal fees to each cryptocurrency, ensuring transparency and predictability. Some coins like IOTA are completely free of withdrawal fees.
Margin transaction fee:
- Lender fees: Only from 15% of fees incurred on the contract, helping to maximize profits from lending activities.
- Hidden margin transaction fee: 18% is a reasonable fee for special transactions.
Advantages and disadvantages of Bitfinex
Outstanding advantages make Bitfinex the top choice of investors:
- Competitive trading fees: Bitfinex applies a flexible and transparent trading fee policy, gradually decreasing depending on trading volume. This helps investors optimize profits and save costs.
- Diverse trading methods: The exchange supports trading of both cryptocurrencies and popular fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, JPY, GBP. In addition, the OTC (Over-the-Counter) feature helps investors make large transactions privately and flexibly.
- Margin trading: Bitfinex provides margin trading services with flexible leverage, opening up opportunities to increase profits for experienced investors. However, you need to carefully consider the risks when using this feature.
- Diverse trading orders: With many types of trading orders such as Limit, Market, Stop, Trading Stop, Fill or Kill, One Cancels Other, Post Only, Hidden Order, Bitfinex meets all investors’ trading needs.
- Strict listing process: Bitfinex sets very high standards for projects that want to list tokens on the exchange.
- Professional customer service: Bitfinex’s customer support team operates 24/7, ready to answer all customer questions through the Live Chat feature.
- Attractive Staking Program: Bitfinex offers a Staking program, allowing users to lock up a certain amount of coins to receive rewards. This is a way to increase passive profits from holding assets.
- Multi-platform support: Bitfinex provides mobile applications for both iOS and Android operating systems, helping investors make transactions anytime, anywhere.
Despite possessing many outstanding advantages, Bitfinex still has some limitations that investors should note:
- Potential security issues: A history of attacks in the past has made many people concerned about the security level of the exchange, even though Bitfinex has continuously upgraded its security system with a two-factor authentication (2FA) feature. . However, no system is perfect, so you should still be careful when trading at Bitfinex.
- Complicated interface, not friendly to newbies: Bitfinex offers many complex features and tools, suitable for professional traders. This can make beginners feel difficult and confused when using Bitfinex.
- Lack of trial version: The absence of a trial (lite) version makes it difficult for users to experience and get familiar with the interface of the Bitfinex before deciding to use it.
- Identity verification required: Bitfinex requires users to perform identity verification (KYC) to ensure compliance with legal regulations. However, this process can be quite time-consuming and cumbersome for some people.
Instructions for using Bitfinex
Detailed instructions on how to use Bitfinex, from creating an account to trading, to help investors take full advantage of the features the platform provides.
Sign up for Bitfinex
Registering a Bitfinex account is very simple, you just need to follow the detailed steps below:
Step 1: Visit Bitfinex
First, visit the Bitfinex homepage at https://www.bitfinex.com. Click the “Open account” button and select “OPEN ACCOUNT” to begin your journey to explore the world of cryptocurrency with Bitfinex. Then, please read carefully and agree to the terms of service of the exchange by checking the corresponding box and clicking the “Continue” button to proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Fill in information
Provide accurate personal information that the system requires, including name, surname, email address, password, etc. Please choose a strong password to protect your account. After completing the information, click the “Open account” button to submit the registration request.
Step 3: Verify email
Immediately after submitting your registration request, you will receive a confirmation email from Bitfinex. Open the email then click on the verification link sent by the system to activate your account.
Step 4: Log in and explore
Return to the Bitfine homepage and log in with your newly created account. At this point, you have officially become a member of the Bitfinex community. Explore the trading features, e-wallets and many other attractive services the platform offers.
Verify Bitfinex
To ensure safety and compliance with legal regulations, Bitfinex requires users to go through an account verification process. Below are detailed step-by-step instructions for you to complete this procedure quickly and accurately:
Step 1: First, log in to your Bitfinex account. In the lower left corner of the screen, you will see “Verification”, click on it to start the verification process.
Step 2: Click the “Begin Verification” button to verify your account.
Step 3: Choose the appropriate account type such as “Individual account” (individual) or “Corporate account” (business). Select “Vietnam” and check all verification reasons.
Step 4: You will be asked to provide complete and accurate personal information, including:
- Personal information: Full name, date of birth, address, phone number…
- Identity verification: Provide a clear image of your ID card or passport (both front and back).
- Address verification: Provide utility bills (electricity, water,…) to verify residential address.
- Financial verification: Provide information about the origin of assets to prove financial capacity.
- Upload documents: Upload prepared documents according to system requirements.
Step 5: Please double check all information before sending to avoid errors. After submitting your verification request, you will have to wait for Bitfinex to process it.
Bitfinex 2FA security
To safely protect your accounts and digital assets, setting up two-factor authentication (2FA) on Bitfinex is essential:
Step 1: Log in to your Bitfinex account, scroll down the screen and find the “Security” section in the left corner.
Step 2: In the “Two-Factor Authentication” section, you will see many different options. However, to ensure high security and ease of use, tap “Google Authenticator”. Select the “SETUP” button next to Google Authenticator to begin the setup process.
Step 3: Download the Google Authenticator app to your phone from the App Store or Google Play. On the Bitfinex screen, you will see a QR code, open the Google Authenticator app on your phone and scan this QR code.
Step 4: After scanning the code, Google Authenticator will automatically generate a 6-digit code. Please enter this code in the corresponding box on the Bitfinex screen and click the “ENABLE” button to complete the activation process.
How to create a wallet on Bitfinex
Creating a wallet on Bitfinex is an important step for you to be able to store and manage cryptocurrencies, please create a wallet with the following steps:
- Step 1: First, log in to your Bitfinex account, find and select “Transfer”, then click “Deposit”.
- Step 2: In the list of coins, select the type you want to create a wallet for. For example, if you want to create a Bitcoin wallet, click the Bitcoin icon.
- Step 3: Click the “Click to generate address” button, the system will automatically generate a unique Bitcoin wallet address for you. Copy this wallet address carefully, you will need this address when you want to deposit Bitcoin to the wallet.
How to deposit and withdraw money on Bitfinex
To start your trading journey on Bitfinex, you need to deposit money into your account, follow these steps:
- Step 1: At the main interface, find and select “Wallet”.
- Step 2: In the list of supported coins, select the cryptocurrency you want to deposit.
- Step 3: Click the “Click to generate address” button, a unique wallet address will be generated. Please copy this address and send the corresponding coins to this address.
When you want to withdraw money from the exchange, follow these steps:
- Step 1: Similar to when depositing money, go to the “Wallet” section.
- Step 2: Select the type of coin you want to withdraw.
- Step 3: Enter the destination wallet address, the amount of coins you want to withdraw and select the account type. Finally, please check the information and agree to the terms of the exchange before pressing the “Request Withdrawal” button.
How to trade on Bitfinex
Detailed instructions on how to trade on Bitfinex properly:
Step 1: Visit the “BALANCES” section to see the full list of coins supported on Bitfinex. Based on your knowledge and market analysis, choose the coin you want to trade.
Step 2: In the “Order form” section, you will need to fill in the following information:
- Quantity: Enter the number of coins you want to buy or sell.
- Order type: Select “Exchange Buy” to buy or “Exchange Sell” to sell.
- Confirm and send order: After filling in all information, check it again and click the “Place order” button to make the transaction.
Note:
- Order type: In addition to direct buy/sell orders, Bitfinex also supports many other types of orders such as limit orders, market orders, etc. Each type of order has its own advantages and disadvantages. you should research carefully before using.
- Charts: Bitfinex offers technical analysis tools like charts to help you make better trading decisions. Take advantage of these tools to evaluate market trends and place reasonable orders.
- Transaction fees: Every time you make a transaction, you will have to pay a certain fee. Check out Bitfinex’s fee table for detailed information.
How to send support at Bitfinex when having problems
If you have any difficulties or questions when using Bitfinex’s services, you can rest assured because there is always a customer support team ready to help. To contact Bitfinex, please access the exchange’s customer support center directly through the following link: https://www.bitfinex.com/support.
Here, you will be provided with many different support channels to answer all your questions:
- Ask a Question: This is where you can ask questions directly about any issue related to accounts, transactions, security, etc. The system will automatically search for suitable answers or forward your request to support.
- Contact Support: If your question needs a more detailed answer, click on “Contact Support”. You’ll be guided through creating a new support request and providing details about the issue you’re experiencing.
In addition, Bitfinex also provides a huge treasure of knowledge with thousands of tutorial articles and frequently asked questions (FAQs) on various topics. You can easily find the information you need without having to contact support directly.
FAQ about Bitfinex
Should you trade Bitfinex?
Bitfinex not only stands out for its high liquidity but also provides a wide range of comprehensive financial services. Users can easily deposit and withdraw fiat currency through Visa and Mastercard, participate in the lending market to earn profits from digital assets or stake to receive attractive rewards up to 7%/year.
Is Bitfinex safe?
With a commitment to top security, Bitfinex has implemented many safety measures to protect customer assets. Cold storage of the majority of coins, combined with a professional and fast support team, helps minimize the risk of loss. Besides, the exchange also provides insurance for account balances, and requires two-factor authentication (2FA) and SMS verification to enhance security. Despite experiencing a number of security incidents in the past, Bitfinex quickly fixed and continuously upgraded the system, affirming its commitment to protecting user assets.
Does Bitfinex have an IEO?
Up to this point, there has been no official information from the exchange about the initial token offering (IEO).
With a long history of operation, high liquidity and a variety of features, Bitfinex is one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges today. However, the cryptocurrency market is always volatile, investors need to be fully equipped with knowledge and skills before deciding to participate. If you are an experienced trader and want to access a variety of digital assets, you may want to consider the platform. To update more detailed information about the cryptocurrency market, please follow Crypto568’s detailed articles.
