[OFFICIAL]Bitfinex.com first Bitcoin P2P lending platform for leverage trading

[LeChatNoir]

Still doing my due diligence but I have about 10K sitting in my bank doing nothing and was thinking of signing up for BitFinex and provide liquidity to get some returns.  

What are the risks and what are your guys thoughts?

It is very profitable but do it with money you can afford to lose.

It is certainly very profitable in comparison to a savings account. It is not very profitable if you take your advise at heart and consider a real risk of losing it all. Think about the profit you would have made buying bitcoin at 450 on May 20th (possibly on 2.5:1 margin) and selling at 650 on June 8th.  This would have been infinitely more profitable than having your funds lend out for whole 2014 and also bears the risk of losing it all.

Buying on margin has exactly the same risk of losing everything as lending out those funds because in both cases you have to trust Bitfinex. And why do you assume that if he doesn't lend out he will be able to buy the bottom of the next swing up and sell the top? He might as well buy on margin at 610$ face a margin call at 400$ and lose everything according to your strategy.
Buy some bitcoin (not on margin), hold some gold and also lend out some of your $$$ is my advice.

[1715403602]

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[1715403602]

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[1715403602]

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[wotter11]

I think I'm going to put $5K in Bitfinex and give it a go at lending.  I already have other investments so this is just a play money that I can afford to lose.

I do have an issue on how safe my ID is with them.

Thanks for all the input 

[ForReal]

Does anybody notice the very unusual activities in the swap lending market? The rate has been jump up and down dramatically (implies somebody taking a lot of funds) but there is no significant amount of trading show up on bitwisdom to justify this kind of activities. 

[ForReal]

All the good times gone?

where did you get this graph ??

[komar]

where did you get this graph ??

I drew it. :)

[LeChatNoir]

Can you use their API? I'm receiving weird responses from their server.

[komar]

Can you use their API? I'm receiving weird responses from their server.

What type of requests exactly? The only one I use is https://api.bitfinex.com/v1/lendbook/usd (and  the same for btc and ltc). And it's working.

And yes, I received HTML bullshit with captcha about 12 hours ago. But now it's OK.

[LeChatNoir]

Can you use their API? I'm receiving weird responses from their server.

What type of requests exactly? The only one I use is https://api.bitfinex.com/v1/lendbook/usd (and  the same for btc and ltc). And it's working.

And yes, I received HTML bullshit with captcha about 12 hours ago. But now it's OK.

Public API is ok for me too. I have problem with private API if i request balance information for example i receive this response:

� ���S ���
� �w�D�2�*cf�&8�ұ���b�Q�vy�>�9�;�S����Z�!�
��bX{u��q$�<ǫ2V�^ɜ�#�H�]H}7��9_����M��kau��bY   �3J��T�W3RI\������]v�rr5#����9���zQX   �� &��f


Edit: i solved with 1 line of code: request.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip

[chilly2k]

Can you use their API? I'm receiving weird responses from their server.

What type of requests exactly? The only one I use is https://api.bitfinex.com/v1/lendbook/usd (and  the same for btc and ltc). And it's working.

And yes, I received HTML bullshit with captcha about 12 hours ago. But now it's OK.

Public API is ok for me too. I have problem with private API if i request balance information for example i receive this response:

� ���S ���
� �w�D�2�*cf�&8�ұ���b�Q�vy�>�9�;�S����Z�!�
��bX{u��q$�<ǫ2V�^ɜ�#�H�]H}7��9_����M��kau��bY   �3J��T�W3RI\������]v�rr5#����9���zQX   �� &��f


Edit: i solved with 1 line of code: request.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip

   Sounds like you solved your problem.  

I just uncovered a problem.  I'm using the API to trade.  I'm generating orders, and they are accepted by Bitfinex, but thats the extent of it.  I have an orderid, time stamp, and the response says the trade is active.  They don't get processed, and the history doesn't get updated.  I've sent an email to support, but was just wondering if anyone else has seen anything strange like this.  Seems to have start after 4:30 this afternoon.   Thats the last time a trade was written to my history.    

  WOW, support is fast, I just got a reply back, that they are looking into it. 

[komar]

Does anyone else feel like catching spikes with high interest rate is a lame idea? It takes hours to catch them, but borrowers return the money after a hour or so.

[nrd525]

There is some very weird stuff going on with USD swaps.

Bfxdata.com has the lowest offer rate spiking to 2.7% at 2:52 today, while the total swaps barely changed (or quite possibly the change wasn't caught in the time interval that bfxdata.com uses).

Also the $5.6 million demand for swaps at 0.18 to 0.2% is very high.  Could it be fake?  This $5 million wall seems to appear and disappear without ever being filled.

[nrd525]

Does anyone else feel like catching spikes with high interest rate is a lame idea? It takes hours to catch them, but borrowers return the money after a hour or so.

Catching tiny spikes doesn't work. Catching larger spikes that last 24+ hours can work. Ideally the spike needs to be more of a bull market that lasts several days (so the borrower doesn't return the money). Recently I was lending some money out at 0.3% and 0.5% when the FRR was hitting 0.23% and the lowest offers were as high as 0.4-0.8%

[DoubleSwapper]

Do you see what's happening to darkcoin right now?

http://www.reddit.com/r/BitcoinMarkets/comments/27158u/bitfinex_is_going_to_list_drkbtc_and_drkusd_very/

I'm getting ready to pull out,. If DRK gets enabled for margin trading I'm done.

Any arguments about why you want to pull out ? You sound so dramatic ...

I'm mainly operating as a swap provider on BFX and if I cannot choose to whom I lend money for trading I feel not safe in case of a large DRK crash. Alts have the potential to crash very hard which makes providing money for long positions dangerous.
Look at this chart. https://coinmarketcap.com/drk_30.html Darkcoin has lost 50 % of it's value in less than three days. On top of the huge volatility liquidity will likely be low (such a ltc liquidity on bfx which is....rough). BFX cannot guarantee a force liquidation under these cirumstances which is an incalculatable risk to me. Offering money for 0.2 % percent is not worth it if your funds can lose 10 % because of a DRK crash.

See my other post as well:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=229438.msg7039176#msg7039176

If DRK is added as a pure exchange coin I might consider staying but everything points to it added as a regular margin coin. Unacceptable for me.

Wise decision of BFX not to include Darkcoin into Margin Trading.

[0x3d]

Out of curiosity, why did I see EUR, HKD and GBP (iirc) on the "Market statistics" page like half a day ago and why is that all gone again by now? Adding some new pairs soon I suppose?

If so, good. I'd love to get EUR out directly from BFX instead of donating exchange fees to my bank every effin' time.

[komar]

Added Bitfinex Sentiment Index vs BTC/USD chart.

[Xiaoxiao]

Just realized bitfinex has added DRK.... wow.

[aonori]

okcoin start P2P lending system like bitfinex.

now borrow(demand) order is 0.1-0.01%/day, total about $0.29million.
reserve(demand) order is 0.14-0.06%/day, total about $0.87million.
lend(offer) order is 0.1-0.23%/day, total about $3million.

lender/borrower/reserver can take max 360days.
leverrage rate is 1:1-2(due to your account level)

[Dalmar]

okcoin start P2P lending system like bitfinex.

now borrow(demand) order is 0.1-0.01%/day, total about $0.29million.
reserve(demand) order is 0.14-0.06%/day, total about $0.87million.
lend(offer) order is 0.1-0.23%/day, total about $3million.

lender/borrower/reserver can take max 360days.
leverrage rate is 1:1-2(due to your account level)

Considering the fiat restrictions in China I'd wager that the CNY rates will go higher and BTC rates will go lower similar to BFX but possibly even more pronounced.

[21pilot]

okcoin start P2P lending system like bitfinex.

now borrow(demand) order is 0.1-0.01%/day, total about $0.29million.
reserve(demand) order is 0.14-0.06%/day, total about $0.87million.
lend(offer) order is 0.1-0.23%/day, total about $3million.

lender/borrower/reserver can take max 360days.
leverrage rate is 1:1-2(due to your account level)

this is partly wrong.
Okcoin offers up to 1:3 leverage.

I really think bitfinex could also start to increase the possible leverage (at least for the more liquid BTC/USD market).
This would really encourage trading volume and also have benefits for the lenders (very likely higher interest rates).

[nrd525]

I think US bulls can use BTC swap to reduce the capital gains tax rate.  If you have capital gains on a BTC long position, however you want to cash out and have held for under six months - then you are subject to the higher short term capital gains tax rate. 

However, if you hold your BTC position and protect yourself from losses by creating a new BTC short position - and continue to do this for over six months - then you pay the long term tax rate (which can be 10-15% lower - and in some tax brackets: 0).

Note: I think this is true.  I haven't actually done it, nor should this be considered professional tax advice.  Just something I saw someone else explain recently.