Bitfinex is one of the world’s largest trading platforms for crypto currencies. The company is based in Hong Kong. Therefore the platform and the support is only available in English. On Bitfinex, crypto currencies worth over 1 billion US dollars are traded daily.

The platform is aimed more at experienced traders and is therefore difficult for newcomers to understand. Since short also euro deposits on Bitfinex are possible however with a minimum of 10.000 euro. If you want to trade less you have to buy Bitcoins on another platform (e.g. Coinbase) and send it to Bitfinex.

Even investors who open a new account with Bitfinex must first show 10,000 US dollars in credit before they can trade on Bitfinex. Source: http://www.Bestbitcoinexchange.net/vs/bitmex.com+bitfinex.com

Crypto currencies for trading

You can currently trade the following crypto currencies on Bitfinex: Aventus (AVT), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Streamr DATAcoin (DATA), Eidoo (EDO), EOS (EOS), Ethereum Classic (ETC), Ethereum (ETH), Metaverse (ETP), IOTA (IOTA), Litecoin (LTC), NEO (NEO), OmiseGO (OMG), Qash (QASH), Qtum (QTUM), Santiment Network Token (SAN), Monero (XMR), Ripple (XRP), Zcash (ZEC) and many more.

Currently there are over 60 crypto currencies to trade on Bitfinex.

Login and registration

The registration on Bitfinex is quite easy, because you don’t have to verify yourself in the first step to trade there. To open a new account simply click on “Open Account” on the website and enter your data and the desired password. After confirming your email address you are already registered.

Then you have the possibility to verify yourself. With this you can also make Euro deposits (10.000 Euro minimum) and withdrawals. The verification took me however 2 months. Submitting the documents took in principle only 5 minutes, but then it took 2 months until Bitfinex verified the data.

Basically it is also possible to trade on Bitfinex without verification. You only have to send Bitcoins from another wallet or provider to Bitfinex. With the Bitcoins you can then buy Altcoins (IOTA, Dash, Ripple etc.) on Bitfinex.

Purchase process and payment methods

I would recommend you to buy all Altcoins on Bitfinex against Bitcoins. Because this is the easiest way. To get the Bitcoins to Bitfinex you just have to click on Deposit at the top of Bitfinex.

Then select Bitcoin if you want to deposit Bitcoins or Ethereum if you want to deposit Ethereum. When you have done this you will see 3 wallets.

Bitfinex Wallets

• The Exchange Wallet is the normal wallet where you have to send the Bitcoins if you want to buy Altcoins (Ethereum, IOTA, Dash, Ripple, etc).
• You can use the Margin Wallet to do Margin Trading. This will allow you to borrow more than your normal credit to trade. However, you pay a daily interest on the borrowed credit.
• You can use the Funding Wallet to lend your credit (to Margin Trader). In return you will get a daily interest.

You simply send your Bitcoins to the address of the Exchange Wallet. As soon as the Bitcoins are there you can see the credit in your wallet (just click on Wallets in the upper right corner of the Bitfinex menu). Now you can buy Altcoins.

To buy old coins you have to click on Trading above. Then you’ll see the following screen:

Bitfinex Trading View

In the “Tickers” box at the top left you can choose which crypto currency you want to get displayed. In the example here I clicked on IOTA/BTC. If you have done this, the chart will change and you will see the price history.

To buy Altcoins you have to use the “Order Form” under “Tickers”. You simply choose what you want to buy, for example IOTA/BTC or Dash/BTC and then you go into the order form. There you have two possibilities to make a purchase:

With the “Market Buy” the purchase is executed immediately and you get the crypto currency immediately credited (for example IOTA). The best possible price will automatically be taken as the price.
With “Limit Buy” you can decide at which rate you want to buy. You then enter the price and the order will only be executed when the coins are also available at the price. For beginners I would recommend the “Market Buy”.

To finalize the purchase you just have to enter how much of the crypto currency you want to buy and on the left side you will see how many bitcoins this costs you (only valid for the “Market Buy”, when buying a limit you define it yourself).

Bitfinex Order Form

Then click on Exchange Buy and the purchase is completed. You will then see your new balance in your wallet on Bitfinex.

The sale works the same way. You just enter how much of a certain currency you want to sell and click on “Exchange Sell” instead of “Exchange Buy”. It is important that you select “Market” again. Then the best possible selling price will be taken automatically. The order will be executed immediately.

Storage of Coins

At Bitfinex your coins are automatically stored in their own wallet on Bitfinex. To make this safer I recommend to activate the 2-factor authentication. This works if you click on Account (top right) and then on Security.

If you don’t want to leave the coins on Bitfinex, you can of course transfer them to your own wallet. Just click on Withdraw at the top of the menu and select the crypto currency you want to send.

According to Bitfinex, over 99% of the coins are stored offline in the “Cold Storage”. This prevents them from being stolen in the event of a hacker attack.

Fees

The fees at Bitfinex depend on your turnover in the last 30 days, but are a maximum of 0.2% per trade. The maker fee is only half as high. Maker fees apply if you make a limit purchase or sale that is not executed immediately because the desired price target has not yet been reached.
Bitfinex Fees

Meanwhile, Bitfinex also has a fee for deposits under 1,000 US dollars. So whoever sends Bitcoins to Bitfinex that have a value of less than 1,000 US dollars pays another fee for it.

Bitfinex deposit fees

Deposits with a value of over 1,000 US dollars are still free of charge.

Withdrawals from crypto currencies are free of charge. At least Bitfinex does not charge a fee for this. You only pay the normal network fees of the respective crypto currency, which usually goes to the miners to confirm the transaction.

Who is verified with Bitfinex, can make also euro deposits (10,000 euro minimum) and disbursements. For this a fee of 20 Euro per payout is due.

App

Bitfinex also has an app, but it is almost unusable. While the Coinbase app allows you to do everything you can do on your computer, the Bitfinex app is only suitable for checking courses. But even for that there are better alternatives. So there is no need to download the app. If you want to use Bitfinex you have to do it on your computer.
Bitfinex App

Bottom line

Bitfinex is especially suitable for professional traders who want to trade Altcoins (Ethereum, IOTA, Ripple, Dash, etc). Although Binance offers the better alternative here because Binance has more crypto currencies, there is no margin trading and no Euro deposits and withdrawals with Binance. If you only want to buy Bitcoins, you have much better alternatives (Coinbase).

So if you want to do margin trading (with one lever) and have at least 10,000 US dollars to trade with Bitfinex, you are in good hands with Bitfinex, otherwise the platform is too complicated for beginners.

So if you are a beginner, I would rather recommend other platforms like eToro (no crypto currency withdrawal possible), Coinbase, CoinFalcon and Binance (trading only against BTC and ETH), always depending on which crypto currency you want to buy.