Bitfinex Exchange Review

Bitfinex is one of the oldest exchanges, having been founded in 2012 and survived, although not impeccably, to this day. They have experienced two hacks and multiple controversies regarding accusations of market manipulation and insolvency, and many people still believe the exchange does not have all of the user funds it says, and is operating a fractional reserve.

All the while, and despite this turbulence, Bitfinex has proven to attract not only many traders but massive volumes – and is frequently regarded as one of the most important places where price action and discovery happens first, before leaking to other exchanges through market makers and natural forces.

Bitfinex offers margin trading, and their in-house indicators for Bitcoin shorts and longs make for signals the entire crypto market utilizes to obtain market insight. Bitfinex has suffered two major security breaches, or hacks, in simpler terms, once in 2015 and another in 2016, the latter being one of the largest hacks in the space to this day, and have yet to pay back the losses from these occurrences. While we believe an exchange that suffers hacks of this magnitude has learned these lessons the hard way, we cannot say for certain these events will not repeat themselves.

Bitfinex has certainly managed to establish itself as a leading ecosystem player, and today managed to narrow down its audience to a very specific type: Until recently, the platform demanded a minimum account equity equalling at least $10K, which means casual retail traders will probably will not make Bitfinex their first choice over, for example, Binance or Bittrex, coupled with relatively high fees although with a fee structure that favors market making and reaches zero fees the more trades made in a certain timeframe.

The exchange also supports fiat trading, deposits and withdrawals, although for a new user the tedious verification process can take upwards of two months to complete – due to the backlog of applicants Bitfinex has – which signals many traders are willing to go through the process despite its downsides.

All things considered, Bitfinex is certainly one of the most important exchanges in the crypto space, and manages to attract many traders who are willing to comply with its sometimes unfriendly approach, while traders who look for other characteristics such as low fees, a wide selection of coins to trade or minimal account verification and funding have many different options to choose from.