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

[Hunyadi]

It is not very hard to find out your ETC address from that picture, just FYI. Only partially covered + probably quite unique amount.

Thanks for the tip, but it's not worth it (that's just Poloniex-address). I just took all my remaining cryptos out of Finex. This delay might be because of Ethereum/C is under spam attack or whatever...shitcoins  

[1714743913]

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[1714743913]

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[hifzi]

becarefull of this shitty scam platform

today this platform have so many volume, and many pumping bitcoin a moment ago,
almost same what happen back in augst

[Sukrim]

So your indication of a "shitty scam platform" is good trading volume?

[deisik]

So your indication of a "shitty scam platform" is good trading volume?

Two days before the Bitfinex hack the trading volumes also spiked dramatically. One of the possible explanations tells us that people "in the know" (scammers or hackers themselves) had been selling heaps of bitcoins and allegedly withdrawing fiat. It would also make sense to heavily short bitcoins at other exchanges that allowed trading on margin, and obviously some did exactly that. So the hackers (and those who followed their lead) made a lot of money beside the amount they had stolen...

In this way, huge trading volume may be an indicator of sorts

[mayax]

So your indication of a "shitty scam platform" is good trading volume?

it's a fake volume and yes, it's an illegal business as long they are not financial licensed anywhere.

[akhavr]

it's an illegal business as long they are not financial licensed anywhere.

Sure, business can be legal only when allowed by people owners...

[Bonez0r]

Kudos for implementing a feature that i have long wished for, the ability to change existing orders. I always found it unnecessarily clumsy to have to cancel an order entirely and then re-enter it only because i want to change the price or amount. I don't know if there are other BTC exchanges that have this feature (i only use Bitfinex, Kraken and Poloniex these days), but it's the first time i see it on a web based platform.

edit: And in addition to the edit button in the orders list, the orders are also displayed in the chart and you can simply drag them up or down.

edit2: Also this:

Place funding bids and offers at an offset above or below the Flash Return Rate (demo). These rates have a dynamic rate in the funding book, but are matched at a static rate (more developments coming soon).

Finally it's no longer necessary to check every day and adjust an offer so it's just below FRR.

[yrc]

Hello, guys.
Anyone having problems with bank transfer withdrawal last week?

[pbleak]

Any news on the hack? Seems absurd considering the money that nobody was found.

[Ente]

Better get used to it, noone ever gets caught. Even when taking millions from an eschange, and even when everyone can closely watch the coins move. I too am puzzled about this phenomenon.
Heck, with MtGox, noone even knows if those vanished coins even existed to begin with.

Ente

[Quickseller]

Better get used to it, noone ever gets caught. Even when taking millions from an eschange, and even when everyone can closely watch the coins move. I too am puzzled about this phenomenon.
Heck, with MtGox, noone even knows if those vanished coins even existed to begin with.

Ente

With the Bitfinex hack, it has been alleged that the stolen BTC has been moved to very specific addresses via specific transactions, the inputs of which could all be reasonably traced back to bitfinex.

Regarding the MtGox hack, the coins were likely stolen over time, both via people exploiting what Gox claimed to have happened, via gox erroneously processing a withdrawal multiple times, and with Mark misappropriating customer funds.

[Sukrim]

Unused Financing Fee
January 09, 2017

A recent analysis of user behavior has revealed several attempts to artificially inflate funding rates for certain currencies through a particular pattern of taking and returning funding. The pattern and scale of these user actions indicate systematically manipulative behavior. Such behavior is strictly prohibited.

To prevent exploitative behavior and to protect traders and lenders, Bitfinex is adjusting how fees are handled in these situations.

Effective immediately, the platform will charge one full day’s interest on any funding that is borrowed and subsequently returned without being used in a financed position. This change will not impact most traders or funding providers. It will act to dissuade manipulative behavior and ensure fair platform use for all.

Platform monitoring tools will continue to detect disruptive, distortionary, or manipulative borrowing practices in order to maintain the best possible environment for traders and funding providers. Please note that levying this new fee does not endorse or condone this behavior. It is still impermissible, and we reserve the right to take further punitive measures as we deem necessary to ensure the integrity of the financing platform. Specifically, users subject to this fee may be flagged for further investigation and may be subject to further sanction, at our discretion.

If you have any questions about how this may affect your trading or financing activities, please reach out to support@bitfinex.com and we will happily help you.

Interesting, I really hope that they mean "at least one full day's interest or more, if borrowed for a longer period of time".

[Dunkelheit667]

And I really hope the funding provider will get this one full day's interest. Let's see... The FRR manipulations (up and down) were ignored for years.

[pbleak]

Better get used to it, noone ever gets caught. Even when taking millions from an eschange, and even when everyone can closely watch the coins move. I too am puzzled about this phenomenon.
Heck, with MtGox, noone even knows if those vanished coins even existed to begin with.

Ente

With the Bitfinex hack, it has been alleged that the stolen BTC has been moved to very specific addresses via specific transactions, the inputs of which could all be reasonably traced back to bitfinex.

Regarding the MtGox hack, the coins were likely stolen over time, both via people exploiting what Gox claimed to have happened, via gox erroneously processing a withdrawal multiple times, and with Mark misappropriating customer funds.

Any more details, I'm fascinated by this case, how easy it was to do.

[mayax]

Better get used to it, noone ever gets caught. Even when taking millions from an eschange, and even when everyone can closely watch the coins move. I too am puzzled about this phenomenon.
Heck, with MtGox, noone even knows if those vanished coins even existed to begin with.

Ente

With the Bitfinex hack, it has been alleged that the stolen BTC has been moved to very specific addresses via specific transactions, the inputs of which could all be reasonably traced back to bitfinex.

Regarding the MtGox hack, the coins were likely stolen over time, both via people exploiting what Gox claimed to have happened, via gox erroneously processing a withdrawal multiple times, and with Mark misappropriating customer funds.

Any more details, I'm fascinated by this case, how easy it was to do.

yes, tens of millions diapered in their pockets   

[Rogerdale]

I'm wondering what risks are associated with becoming a funding provider in USD to margin traders. Does anybody have any experience? Can I deposit BTC, exchange them to USD and provide funding to margin traders and get interest for that? Is it worth it and is it safe?

[deisik]

I'm wondering what risks are associated with becoming a funding provider in USD to margin traders. Does anybody have any experience? Can I deposit BTC, exchange them to USD and provide funding to margin traders and get interest for that? Is it worth it and is it safe?

I guess you risk your funds being confiscated

Just like it happened after the previous hack when funds of all users had been affected even if they had no bitcoins in their wallets. As i got it, Bitfinex socialized losses between all their clients, even those who were not hacked. So if something's going to happen again, your money won't be safe. Besides, I don't think that the interest you might earn is worth the effort (as well as risk). I read a story here of some guy who deposited bitcoins after the hack, and the exchange basically refused to return them to him

[Quickseller]

I'm wondering what risks are associated with becoming a funding provider in USD to margin traders. Does anybody have any experience? Can I deposit BTC, exchange them to USD and provide funding to margin traders and get interest for that? Is it worth it and is it safe?

I guess you risk your funds being confiscated

Just like it happened after the previous hack when funds of all users had been affected even if they had no bitcoins in their wallets. As i got it, Bitfinex socialized losses between all their clients, even those who were not hacked. So if something's going to happen again, your money won't be safe. Besides, I don't think that the interest you might earn is worth the effort (as well as risk). I read a story here of some guy who deposited bitcoins after the hack, and the exchange basically refused to return them to him

I don't have a link ATM, however IIRC, there was one (or more) person who deposited after the hack but before Bitfinex shut down who did receive a refund of his deposit.

Now that bitfinex has moved back to a hot/cold wallet system, the risk of loss due to theft is much lower. The primary risk is that so many many margin loans are given out and that the btc price declines so much that margin borrowers are unable to repay their loans collectively. In the past when margin borrowers have been unable to repay their loans bitfinex has stepped in and covered the difference. Depending on how much Btc declines bitfinex may not be able and/or willing to cover these losses in the future.

I would encourage you to study the risk of this and other negative events happening before lending on their platform. 

[deisik]

I'm wondering what risks are associated with becoming a funding provider in USD to margin traders. Does anybody have any experience? Can I deposit BTC, exchange them to USD and provide funding to margin traders and get interest for that? Is it worth it and is it safe?

I guess you risk your funds being confiscated

Just like it happened after the previous hack when funds of all users had been affected even if they had no bitcoins in their wallets. As i got it, Bitfinex socialized losses between all their clients, even those who were not hacked. So if something's going to happen again, your money won't be safe. Besides, I don't think that the interest you might earn is worth the effort (as well as risk). I read a story here of some guy who deposited bitcoins after the hack, and the exchange basically refused to return them to him

I don't have a link ATM, however IIRC, there was one (or more) person who deposited after the hack but before Bitfinex shut down who did receive a refund of his deposit.

Now that bitfinex has moved back to a hot/cold wallet system, the risk of loss due to theft is much lower. The primary risk is that so many many margin loans are given out and that the btc price declines so much that margin borrowers are unable to repay their loans collectively. In the past when margin borrowers have been unable to repay their loans bitfinex has stepped in and covered the difference. Depending on how much Btc declines bitfinex may not be able and/or willing to cover these losses in the future

I don't know how they implement the margin trading, so I can't assert what you say might not actually happen. But if they do it right, the chances of that should be low. In other words, it would require a really dramatic price change. I guess, to avoid such issues that should just keep the balance between short positions and long ones opened on borrowed funds (i.e. on margin)

So it still comes down to how good an exchange is at handling their risks

[Quickseller]

I believe that they allow 3.3x initial leverage and require 15% maintenance margin in order to maintain positions. By my calculations, this means that there would need to be a very swift change in price in excess of 10% for the possibility of individual accounts to have negative equity.

Users do not have to use the maximum amount of leverage (although lenders do not have any control over this).

I would point out that, according to https://www.bfxdata.com/positions/btcusd as of Jan 6 at 8:59, the price of BTC was 1,151.16, and there were 37,349BTC in outstanding BTCUSD long positions, and as of Jan 6 at 17:59, the price of BTC was 962.26 (down ~16.4%), and there were 26,422BTC in outstanding BTCUSD long positions (down ~10,900BTC, or ~29.25%). This did of course follow a very sharp upward movement in the BTCUSD price, and is only one example of how the market on Bitfinex specifically handled one specific quick selloff.