Bitfinex Basics - How to create and verify an account, securing an account, funding and withdrawing your Bitcoins on the Bitfinex trading platform

Bitfinex is the leading cryptocurrency exchange and the world’s largest exchange by volume for trading bitcoin against the US Dollar (USD).

Several unrivaled products fuel Bitfinex's market dominance:

Exchange Trading
Users can exchange bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies against US Dollars and vice-versa. Bitfinex offers a diverse cryptocurrency exchange platform for several of the top coins.

Financed Trading
Bitfinex allows users to receive financing from their peer-to-peer financing platform. This allows users like us to be able to do margin trades with up to 3.3x leverage.

Peer-to-Peer Financing
The financing market provides users with a way to earn interest on their USD, BTC, ETH, ETC, BFX, ZEC, and LTC balances by allowing them to lend their funds to other users wanting to trade with financing. Although the rates are usually low, those who are planning on long holding these coins can earn more as time passes thanks to the peer to peer financing feature.

Over The Counter Market (OTC)
Bitfinex offers a private OTC Market as an avenue for traders seeking to perform large trades directly with a counterparty, bypassing the public order books. Trades performed via the OTC Market provide access to large liquidity without affecting the exchange market price. This is an added benefit that only Bitfinex and a select other few exchanges provide.

How to create an account?

Go to the website and click on “Sign up” or “Open account”.

Input necessary details on the sign up form and click “Open account” button.

Click the confirmation link sent to your email. You should now be able to login using your email address and password.

Secure your account by completing recommended security options. Go to Account>Security. The following are the options:

Email Encryption with OpenPGP
Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption and decryption program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication. It uses a variation of the public key system. To use PGP with Bitfinex email communication, please provide your PGP public key below.

To better understand PGP, read PGP on Wikipedia.
You can download OpenPGP here.

Two-factor authentication
Bitfinex offers FIDO Universal 2nd Factor (U2F), Twilio 2FA and Google Authenticator. Click on them to see how they work.

How to fund your account?

Bitfinex allows USD, BTC, ETH, ETC, LTC and other selected cryptocurrencies.

If you wish to deposit or withdraw US Dollars, your account must be verified to comply with relevant anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) laws and regulations.

Refer to the “How to verify your account?” section of this tutorial.

To fund your account, go to Transfer>Deposit as shown below.

On the next page choose and click the currency you want to deposit. In this example, we are going to use BTC deposit.

On the next page, you will given 3 different addresses one for each of Exchange, Margin and Funding wallet. Use the address as the receiving address when you send or buy Bitcoin from an agent or third party exchange.

How to verify your account?

Bitfinex has adopted an online verification procedure which will require you to complete an online questionnaire and attach certain documents as support. You will also need to download, sign and upload a declaration form confirming the accuracy of the information provided and authorizing Bitfinex to verify the information.

Bitfinex offers two types of accounts:

Individual account - an account in the name of an individual.

Verification Requirements:

Complete online form.
Age: at least 18 years old.
Information: telephone number, email address, residential address.
Identification: two forms of valid government issued identification with picture; i.e., passport, national ID card, driving license, residency card, employment permit card, etc. If you do not have 2 forms of ID, you can provide only one and contact [email protected] to arrange for a Skype or google hangout call.
Bank Statement: clearly highlighting your name as the account holder (your first deposit to Bitfinex must come from this account).
Proof of Address: a statement not older than 3 months from a utility, service company, licensed corporation or government authority clearly indicating your name and residential address.

Please note:

All documents provided must be in Roman/Latin alphabet or a certified English translation is required.
All files uploaded must be in pdf, jpeg, png, text (txt), msword.
All fields in the following verification form are mandatory (NA for Non Applicable can be used).
To avoid possible delays, please check the correctness before submitting documents, please double check you do not send the same document twice and possibly forget one.

Corporate account - an account in the name of a corporation/partnership/trust.

Verification Requirements:

Complete online form.
Corporate Documents: please see link here for complete list of required documentation.
Director Information: each director, significant shareholder and controlling officer(s) are required to provide identification. -
Please review the online form for complete details.
After completing the corporate verification form, an individual form for each director, significant shareholder(s) and controlling officer(s) will be required to be completed.

Please note:

All documents provided must be in Roman/Latin alphabet or a certified English translation is required.
All files uploaded must be in pdf, jpeg, png, text (txt), msword.
All fields in the following verification form are mandatory (NA for Non Applicable can be used).
To avoid possible delays, please check the correctness before submitting documents, please double check you do not send the same document twice and possibly forget one.

To verify your account, go to Account>Verification as shown below. Choose whether Individual or Corporate Account and click on it.

A “Continue” button will appear at the bottom, click on it to proceed to the verification forms.

Complete all the forms and expect a processing time between 5-7 days after all forms are submitted. Monitor your email for status updates and progress reports from the compliance team.

We recommend that you verify your account up to the highest level because exchanges are able to delete or block unverified accounts and accounts which are in bad standing.

How to withdraw your funds?

To withdraw your funds, just go to Transfer>Withdraw

On the next page, click on to the currency you want to withdraw.

Input the receiving address where you want to send your fund into. Then the amount and the wallet which the fund will be taken from. Receive Amount will be automatically calculated or alternatively you input an amount at the Receive Amount box and Send Amount box will be auto-filled. Tick the Conditions Agreement and click Request Withdrawal button.

Follow the instructions to confirm the withdrawal through 2FA and/or email verification.

More of this? Click on the links below: