Dear Customers,
In our ongoing effort to deliver the very best in cryptocurrency trading, Bitfinex is pleased to announce several changes and enhancements that will be effective on March 15th 2014 at 24:00:00 UTC.
New Commission Structure:
We have decided to adjust the commission structure to reward traders that “add liquidity” to the order book. This so-called “maker/taker” pricing strategy is a common feature in capital markets around the world and we believe that implementing such a strategy is in the interests of Bitfinex and its traders. We consider this change to be somewhat experimental and we will act quickly to make any necessary adjustments should it prove to be disruptive. The new fee structure will be as follows:
BTC/LTC Executed in Last 30 Days ******** Current Fee **** New Add Fee ***** New Remove Fee
Less than 500 *************************** 0.15% ********* 0.10% ************ 0.20%
500 or more, but less than 2,000 ************ 0.14% ********* 0.08% ************ 0.20%
2,000 or more, but less than 5,000 ********** 0.13% ********* 0.06% ************ 0.20%
5,000 or more, but less than 15,000 ********* 0.12% ********* 0.04% ************ 0.20%
15,000 or more, but less than 25,000 ******** 0.11% ********* 0.02% ************ 0.20%
25,000 or more ************************* 0.10% ********* 0.00% ************* 0.20%
Please note the following:
Our highest applied fee (0.2% for liquidity removers) is the lowest in the market.
Traders in the top tier trade commission free when adding liquidity.
This change in pricing structure is designed to be revenue neutral to Bitfinex on an average per BTC basis.
We will be revisiting the 30 day volume brackets in the coming weeks in an effort to create a smoother tier system.
New Banking Fees:
We have resisted making changes to our fiat banking policy, but we can no longer continue to absorb the increasing costs of maintaining multiple banking relationships around the world. As such, we are imposing a 0.10% fee on all withdrawals and deposits, subject to a $20 minimum. These fees are still amongst the lowest in the industry and we believe that this new fee structure represents a sustainable fiat banking model as we continue to grow. We are also proud to be one of the fastest platforms in withdrawals, with an average waiting time of 2.37 working days for our customers. This will remain unchanged. Express withdrawals fees (within 24 hours) will stay at 1%.
Removal of Notify Option:
The “notify” feature available when placing orders or liquidity offers is being removed as it is almost never used and doesn’t actually work very well in certain circumstances. We are, in general, always looking to simplify our interface and prune features that no one uses or may no longer be relevant, paving the way for us to add new features to a clean and uncluttered interface.
Removal of Swap Insurance Option:
We are eliminating the swap insurance options for traders offering liquidity. The model of an insurance “pool” only works if the pool size is significant relative the size of the swap market itself, which, at ~$54k it is not.
Change in Swap Policy:
Another reason for removing swap insurance is that we have decided to effectively insure all swaps on the platform. Our order book depth and increased volume over the last several months has created an environment where we are comfortable in managing the risks associated with forced liquidations. Although we have a greater comfort level, it does not mean that such insurance is not without risks to the firm’s reserves. As such we are increasing our fee on the swaps from 10% to 15%. We believe that this is a small price for liquidity providers (instead of the previous 30% insurance option) to have greater certainty and comfort during times of increased volatility.
Change in Claim Position Feature:
In an effort to create greater interoperability between swap and cash positions, we will be allowing greater flexibility in the “Claim Position” feature for open swap positions. Previously, this feature allowed a trader to convert an open swap position into the underlying cash position only if the open P&L in the position was in excess of the swap balance, which essentially limited the use of this feature to positions with enormous positive open P&L. Going forward, this feature will also check for any excess balance in the trading wallet, effectively allowing a trader to “de-lever” their swap into the underlying fiat and cryptocurrency balances, provided, of course, that the trading wallet has sufficient funds to allow for this. This change will be particularly useful for traders would normally prefer to trade on the cash exchange, but are waiting for additional funds (wire transfer) to credit before they can trade. Now that same trader has the ability to temporarily trade on a leveraged basis and subsequently “de-lever” the position when the funds are credited to the account. This change will also allow traders to “fix” their positions, who may have inadvertently opened a position in the trading wallet instead of the exchange wallet. Please note that cost of using this feature (trade commission on underlying position) remains unchanged.
Best regards
The Bitfinex team
Regards,
The Bitfinex Team
https://www.bitfinex.com/ 
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