Key Data

• Trading Name: Bitfinex
• Legal Entities: BFXNA Inc. , BFXWW Inc., Bitfinex Securities Ltd, iFinex Inc., iFinex Financial Technologies Limited, Unus Sed Leo Limited, BFX Pay Limited
  
• Activities: crypto exchange and custodian
  
• Location: British Virgin Islands
  
• Regulations: offshore
  
• Key People: JL van der Velde, Giancarlo Devasini, Raphael Nicolle, Claudia Lagorio, Paolo Ardoino, Peter Warrack, Stuart Hoegner
  

BitFinex is one of the oldest active cryptocurrencies on the market. It belongs to the parent company iFinex and is registered in the British Virgin Islands.

In October 2021, it was announced that Bitfinex paid a $1.5 million fine to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for illegal, off-exchange retail commodity transactions in digital assets with US citizens.

The company was founded in 2012 by Giancarlo Devasini and Raphael Nicolle.

Research suggests that the price manipulation of bitcoin on Bitfinex accounted for about half of the bitcoin’s price increase in late 2017. In April 2019, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit accusing Bitfinex of using the reserves of Tether, a related company, to cover up an $850 million loss to a Panamanian payment processor called Crypto Capital Corp.

Bitfinex’s Offering

Key features of Bitfinex include margin trading, derivatives, paper trading, corporate accounts, and enhanced reporting. The margin funding market allows merchants to leverage funding across a wide range of digital assets and currencies according to the currency and rate of their choice. The advanced charting functionality enables users to visualize positions, price alerts, and orders, which can be modified and annotated on the basis of their trading strategy.

Bitfinex Pay offers WebSocket and REST API, which allows traders to integrate the application with existing platforms and products. The Bitfinex Terminal enables teams to view historical price action to enhance market research and develop trading strategies.

Payments (up to $1,000 equivalent per 24 hours per end customer) will usually be received within minutes with zero processing fees for using the service.

Compliance Problems

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has placed Bitfinex on its warning list of unauthorized firms. Bitfinex has been in discussions with the FCA for the past four months and has taken measures to meet the FCA’s requirements, including issuing a notice to all its customers providing detail of all the measures it has taken to meet the FCA’s requirements. Bitfinex has also blocked a range of website pages to visitors from the UK, including the Bitfinex Affiliates pages, Staking pages, Credit / Debit Cards, Lending Pro, Bitfinex Borrow, various ‘How to buy’ pages, and the Mobile App information page. Full details of the measures taken by Bitfinex to meet the FCA’s concerns are available here . Bitfinex is disappointed by the action taken by the FCA and has a strong track record of working with regulatory authorities and law enforcement agencies globally to combat crime and scams and aid the protection of investors ¹.

Conclusion

Due to some hacks of the stock exchange, manipulation rumors, and involvement in money laundering scandals and the FCA warning we put the company on our “Red Compliance” list.