CryptoCurrency : My thoughts on Bitfinex – TL;DR: Never Again
I’m a relatively active user of GDAX/Coinbase Pro and multiple other exchanges.
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I figured I’d give another exchange a shot, and chose to see what some other large exchanges had to offer. I went and tried Bitfinex as they claimed to be a professional platform.
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During the registration process, some things jumped out to me immediately, but did not raise any red flags at the time. They were:
* 10k minimum funding requirement
* Not based in a country/state considered a global financial hub (e.g. US/UK/Switzerland/Japan/HK/etc.)
Honestly I just overlooked them because I was eager to start using the platform since it offered a lot of listed coins as well as a lot functions such as shorting, which isn’t available on platforms such as Coinbase. I deposited my ETH and began trading for some profits and losses. I’m not a big-time trader/hodler, but I’ve ended up doing around [~145 ETH in the last month.](https://imgur.com/CATf3Kd)
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As I looked deeper into the fees, terms, various processing times, and their subreddit, I began to realize how under-developed (read: not stable) and error-prone their platform was. Specifically, what took me by surprise was how long it took to withdraw crypto. They require a very specific set of parameters for crypto withdrawals to process quickly, and those parameters are not described very well, leading to a lot of confusion. Also, charging 0.1% maker fees was pretty ridiculous as well given that they’re a large exchange. They also charge withdrawal fees. Anyways, this raises enough red flags for me and I begin to contemplate pulling out of Bitfinex over the next few weeks.
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So I decided to liquidate my existing positions and say “that’s enough with these guys” and pull my funds out of there and lo-and-behold: USDT withdrawals aren’t available for unverified users. Understandable for AML, so I decide to try pulling through ETH after jumping through their hoops for withdrawal “fast lane condition.” Now, I’m pulling my funds out in smaller chunks, since ETH has been on a roller coaster ride lately and I wan’t to minimize my exposure to these wild drops. While withdrawing my crypto, I find out that they have an internal ~8-minute processing period (**what’s with charging withdrawal fees when you’re going to be one of the slowest in the world?**) before the transaction even hits the blockchain.
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I think to myself: “Ok, I can apply this delay into my xfer/trading process and still come out without losing too much money” and do so successfully for most of the transactions until the very last batch of ETH…where the 8-minute internal processing says “complete” and **I get a TxID that’s not availabe on etherscan**. Now I’m panicking because I know from experience that their help pages/cs aren’t the best. Still, I file a ticket for my potentially lost ETH. I also go to their subreddit to see if someone there can help me. As soon as I open up their sub, [I find out that other people have been having withdrawal issues as well because of errors on Bitfinex’s end](https://imgur.com/KlZwwQG). I read some of these threads and it looks like I’m basically SOL and I have to wait up to 24 hrs for them to fix their withdrawal function. I don’t even bother posting. In the meantime, this is [the canned response I get from their support team](https://imgur.com/5LXXvnl). [Followed by this canned response when I ask for more info.](https://imgur.com/yx9s6p8) The more research I do, the shadier this exchange looks, and I begin going down an endless panic spiral on a Friday night.
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So while my ETH is in Bitfinex Limbo, ETH begins a small tumble and I have no idea when in the next 24 hours my issue’s going to get fixed. FOUR HOURS AND FIFTY MINUTES after I submitted the withdrawal, I get an alert from the receiving wallet that the Tx is on the blockchain. Bitfinex on the other hand doesnt even bother to let me know that the issue’s fixed. I ended up losing some money and having an overall horrible night waiting for my funds instead of enjoying my Friday night.
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I would definitely rate my Bitfinex experience as probably the worst of any exchange I’ve traded on and would give it maybe 6.5/10 before this withdrawal issue, and 0/10 today. I’m going to avoid their platform going forward and would recommend against it every opportunity that I get. As crypto traders, hodls, speculators, whatever, please please please do research into your exchange and their policies. test out small amounts and experience their platform on a small scale first. Not everything is as nicely put together as Coinbase or even Binance.
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TL;DR: Longtime Coinbase Pro user tried trading on Bitfinex. Higher fees, less transparency, withdrawal fees, account maintenance fees, extra withdrawal processing times, etc. all made for a shitty experience. Funds got stuck in Bitfinex Withdrawal Limbo last night (4-digit $ value), eventually lost some money thanks to them, and that was the last straw.
Edit: to be clear, [I had satisfied BOTH of their green lane requirements](https://imgur.com/90wqzke) weeks ago and easily passed their 10k funding requirements pretty much as soon as my acct was opened. That screenshot is also good for newer users who want to know what it looks like once the conditions are satisfied.
Edit 2: to the gents saying im just a small player not worth the exchanges time and attn: care to show how much money you’re managing on an exchange with dated poof? I’m not a whale by any means, but [here’s my activity for the sake of transparency](https://imgur.com/j8T9ipQ).
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