Bitfinex Review 2026: Zero Fees, a 2016 Hack, and Who It Suits

Bitfinex is the only exchange in our tracked data with a genuinely $0 maker and $0 taker fee schedule on both sides of the book^†† — the exchange's own tagline calls itself "The Original Bitcoin Exchange - Now with zero trading fees"^†. Before signing up, know two things: identity verification is required^†, and Bitfinex disclosed a security breach in 2016 that we cover factually below, without guessing what it does or doesn't mean for the platform today. This review covers what we could verify about fees, products, regulation and that 2016 incident, following the fact-checking process described in our methodology, and cites only the data we could confirm.

DISCLOSURE: CompareCEX may earn a commission when you sign up through our links. This does not influence our editorial scores.

RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

What Are Bitfinex's Trading Fees?

Bitfinex charges 0% maker and 0% taker^††, sourced directly from Bitfinex's own fee-schedule page. That is not a promotional-tier number that steps up after a volume threshold in our data — it is the standard rate on both sides of the order book, which is unusual: most exchanges we track price the maker side lower than the taker side to reward traders who add liquidity, and almost none reach zero on both.

The next-closest exchange on fees in our data is MEXC, at 0% maker and 0.05% taker^††. Here is what that gap looks like on a round trip — one buy, one sell, both market orders — on a $2,000 position:

A $2 difference on a single $2,000 round trip is small in isolation, but it compounds with frequency: twenty round trips a month is $40 saved against MEXC's schedule, purely on headline trading fees^††. We have no verified withdrawal-fee or spread data for Bitfinex, so we will not estimate what either adds to that number — a 0%/0% trading fee is not the same thing as a free account to run, and readers should check Bitfinex's live withdrawal schedule before assuming the total cost is zero.

What Products Does Bitfinex Offer?

Bitfinex has operated since 2012^† and is headquartered in Taiwan^†. Its confirmed product set is unusually broad for the exchanges we track: spot, margin, futures, options, perpetuals, staking, and lending all show as available^†. Most exchanges in our data confirm somewhere between three and five of those seven categories — Bitfinex is one of the few clearing all seven, which matters if you want derivatives, lending and staking on one account rather than splitting activity across platforms.

The app is available on iOS and Android^†. We do not have verified data on coins listed or payment methods for Bitfinex, so neither is covered here — see our MEXC review for a comparison point on altcoin breadth where we do have that number.

Regulation and the 2016 Security Incident

Bitfinex holds two licenses in our data: FSA Astana in Kazakhstan, covering securities activity, and CNBS in El Salvador, covering financial services^†. Neither is a license in the US, UK or EU — readers weighing regulatory coverage against exchanges licensed in those jurisdictions should factor that in directly rather than assume equivalence.

The fact readers most need before signing up: in 2016, Bitfinex disclosed a hacking incident that resulted in the loss of 119,756 BTC, according to the exchange's own FAQ page on the breach^†. That is what happened, and that is the confirmed figure — nothing more. Bitfinex has operated continuously since 2012, through and after that incident, up to today^††. We have no sourced data on what security changes followed the breach, what Bitfinex's current security posture is, or how it compares to other exchanges' incident histories, so we will not extrapolate the 2016 event into a claim that the platform is safer or riskier today — a ten-year-old, disclosed incident on a still-operating exchange is a fact worth knowing, not a verdict we can responsibly render either direction from the data we have.

Who Should Use Bitfinex — and Who Should Read the Whole Page First?

Based only on what's sourced: Bitfinex suits someone who wants a wide product range — spot through lending and staking — on one account, is comfortable completing identity verification^†, and cares more about paying nothing in trading fees than about a license from a top-tier regulator. It is a weaker fit if a major-jurisdiction license is a hard requirement for you, or if the 2016 incident is disqualifying on its own regardless of the fourteen years of continuous operation since — that is a reasonable position to hold, and this review is not the place to argue you out of it.

Our knowledge base draws a line between an investor and a gambler that applies directly to how you read a page like this one, not just to how you size a trade . Stopping at the 0%/0% headline number^†† and clicking sign-up is the gambler's version of due diligence on a platform — taking the appealing number and skipping past the parts of the page that take more effort to read, the licenses and the security history, because they don't move as fast as a fee number does. The investor's version is reading all three sections — fees, regulation, and the 2016 incident — before deciding, and then deciding with the full picture rather than the one line that was easiest to notice first. Bitfinex's zero fees are real and verified; whether they are the right trade-off next to two non-major-market licenses and a disclosed decade-old breach is a judgment only you can make, and it is a worse judgment made on one fact than on three.

For more on how Bitfinex's fees compare across our tracked exchanges, see our commission-free crypto trading guide, and check our best exchanges shortlist for exchanges that currently qualify under our scoring criteria.

What Are Bitfinex's Pros and Cons?

FAQ

Does Bitfinex really charge 0% fees?

Yes, on both maker and taker sides, per Bitfinex's own fee-schedule page^††. We have no verified withdrawal-fee or spread data, so a 0%/0% trading fee does not confirm the total cost of using the account is zero.

What happened to Bitfinex in 2016?

Bitfinex disclosed a hacking incident that resulted in the loss of 119,756 BTC, according to the exchange's own FAQ page on the breach^†. The exchange has operated continuously since its 2012 founding, through and after that incident^††. We have no sourced data on Bitfinex's current security posture, so we do not draw a conclusion about present-day safety from a 2016 event either way.

Is Bitfinex regulated?

It holds two licenses in our data: FSA Astana in Kazakhstan for securities activity, and CNBS in El Salvador for financial services^†. We have no record of a US, UK or EU license for Bitfinex.

Does Bitfinex require KYC?

Yes, identity verification is required to use the exchange^†.

How does Bitfinex compare to MEXC on fees?

Bitfinex is cheaper at the headline level: 0% maker and 0% taker against MEXC's 0% maker and 0.05% taker^††††. See our full MEXC review for MEXC's other verified figures.

RISK: Crypto assets are volatile and unregulated in many jurisdictions. Not financial advice.

Last updated: 2026-09-25