Bitfinex Review

Bitfinex is a Hong Kong based crypto currency exchange founded in 2012. It is owned and operated by IFinec Inc and ranks as one of the top exchanges in terms of trading volumes and user activity. Popular amongst traders worldwide, in August 2018 it stopped providing services to US individual and corporate customers.

It seems to have started out as a peer-to-peer (P2P) Bit coin exchange involved in margin lending that later expanded by adding more crypto currencies.

Bitfinex offers three main functions - it is a pure bit coin to fiat exchange, a margin trading exchange and a liquidity provider. 

Bitfinex is reported to have suffered multiple security breaches, with investors losing about $400 million and $73 million stolen from its customers accounts. In February 2019, the US Government returned some recovered funds back to Bitfinex.

It is also alleged that at least half of the Bit coin price increase seen in 2017 crypto bull market was a result of price manipulation at Bitfinex.

Critics also seem to raise questions about the connection between Bitfinex and Tether Limited, the company behind Tether (ticker symbol: USDT) a stable coin of the same name. The two seems to share management and shareholders.

Bitfinex claims it offers the most fluid order book in the world, facilitating exchange of digital assets with minimum spillage. The digital asset trading services they offer including both margin trading and margin funding with various order types (limit, market, stop, fill or kill, one cancels other / OCO, post only and hidden order). It is also revealed in a Bitfinex exchange review that they provide the liquidity needed to exchange or trade in digital assets or crypto currencies such as BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, NEO and others.

Bitfinex Exchange Score Analysis

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: The platform demands a minimum account equity equalling at least $10K, which means casual retail traders will probably will not make Bitfine their first choice over, for example, Binance or Bittrex, coupled with relatively high fees although with a fee structure that favours 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.

Source: https://www.cointelligence.com/exchanges_list/bitfinex/