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

[deisik]

I agree that futures are intended for a different purpose. However, the still allow investors to speculate on
the price of the underlying asset. I would argue that it may actually be a better way for institutional investors,
because they don´t have to worry about cold storage, malware, inside jobs of "rogue employees" and so on

I guess it's not that simple

If I'm not mistaken, these are cash-settled futures. That basically means you can neither sell nor buy real bitcoins when you deal in these futures. Apart from that, when you buy a contract someone has to sell it to you, and there might not be many traders willing to sell them since this is not the same as selling real bitcoins. With bitcoins you don't incur any losses when you sell the coins and then their price rises. But this is not the case with futures where your loss can be virtually infinite if you short, i.e. sell them and the price shoots to the moon soon thereafter

[TheQuin]

I count at least 4 at:
http://cfe.cboe.com/cfe-products/xbt-cboe-bitcoin-futures#tradenow

-Advantage Futures
-Interactive Brokers
-Straits Financial
-TradeStation

It was only Interactive Brokers when I looked a couple of days ago. Those are all small retail brokerages, what I'm getting at is that most professional futures traders using the big FCMs wouldn't be able to trade it still stands valid. Also, they'll all be waiting for the CME tomorrow evening anyway not least because the contract is 5x the size so it means that costs will be much lower.

TD Ameritrade (one of the biggest US brokers) is going to start trading the futures on Monday, too.

Again a retail brokerage.

I agree that futures are intended for a different purpose. However, the still allow investors to speculate on
the price of the underlying asset. I would argue that it may actually be a better way for institutional investors,
because they don´t have to worry about cold storage, malware, inside jobs of "rogue employees" and so on.

Not how I imagine it will play out. Futures don't get used like that as you would be paying interest and to fees constantly rollover contracts.
The advantage of having futures available to institutional investors is that it allows them to hedge. So if they were holding 100 BTC and they thought the price was going down over the next few days they would just short equivalent size in the futures (20 CME contracts). This saves them all the hassles involved in actually selling Bitcoins and it is just as easy to cover the position when they think the sell off is over. This means they wouldn't have to actually hold coins on an exchange they can look after them safely and the costs involved in doing it this way are trivial compared to actually moving coins and money in and out of crypto exchanges.
That's the whole thing here about the futures, they just open up possibilities that make Bitcoin more attractive to a lot more people. Don't expect the CME contract to trade huge volume the first days or weeks, this will build up slowly.

[NiceSoft12]

Are the withdrawals backed up for all currencies or just specific currencies?

Because I've made BTC withdrawals in the last week that has gone thru swiftly, but some alternate currencies such as Ripple that has been pending for a few days.

[Debakey]

Hello, I would really appreciate it if someone sent me an invitation code as well. I could share what research I have done so far and what I'm investing into and we could exchange ideas! Very Active.

[Ente]

Hello, I would really appreciate it if someone sent me an invitation code as well. I could share what research I have done so far and what I'm investing into and we could exchange ideas! Very Active.

First month halved fees: uqNq71YYiS

Cheers,

Ente

[FractalUniverse]

I just received info that my code doesn't work.
and there is this note on affiliate page:
[Disabled for new signups]

so either signups are stopped or code from unverified users doesnt work anymore. i didnt see anannouncement about that though

[figmentofmyass]

I just received info that my code doesn't work.
and there is this note on affiliate page:
[Disabled for new signups]

so either signups are stopped or code from unverified users doesnt work anymore. i didnt see anannouncement about that though

i can't verify at the moment (no vpn), but it looks like bitfinex is now requiring "invitation codes" from existing users in order to register. the last time i saw this kind of policy was in torrenting communities for pirating media/software! pretty weird, and kind of off-putting. there's been no announcement from bitfinex. it's not clear whether all new signups are disabled or if (like you said) it's a matter of verified vs. unverified users.

seeing multiple threads like this pop up today:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2610576.0

and hundreds of posts on their reddit about it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7knsee/bitfinex_invitation_code/

also, PSA which may or may not be related: chris ellis (bitfinex employee) used to have warrant canaries displayed on his profile. they're gone.

[v.binh]

Bitfinex, if you're listening, can you support ticket #311499.

[gentlemand]

What's the deal with these invite codes? Is it a way to temporarily restrict new customers and lighten the load or is it something a bit more permanent and extreme? Never heard of an exchange doing that before.

[Quickseller]

What's the deal with these invite codes? Is it a way to temporarily restrict new customers and lighten the load or is it something a bit more permanent and extreme? Never heard of an exchange doing that before.

There was a DDOS attack last week that involved, among other things, creating hundreds of thousands of accounts in order to overload Bitfinex's servers.

[TheQuin]

Bitfinex, if you're listening, can you support ticket #311499.

They are not listening on this forum, try r/BitcoinMarkets

There was a DDOS attack last week that involved, among other things, creating hundreds of thousands of accounts in order to overload Bitfinex's servers.

It is a bit of an extreme measure but at least it seems to be working for now. It was unusable for quite a bit of last week and I expect that not excepting new customers without an invite code is a tempory solution.

[Sukrim]

Apparently Bitfinex has closed down account creation for now, my referral code from https://www.bitfinex.com/representatives also changed to "[Disabled for new signups]" status which I haven't seen before.

The other thread about "invitation codes" (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=196145.0) was about a customer forum in 2013, NOT about these new invitation codes.

I would recommend to focus on Christmas and enjoying time with loved ones, not on running around like maniacs trying to open accounts on already overloaded platforms. If you really "need" to buy cryptocurrency, I'm sure your local nerd friend(s) can help you out.

[webtimmi]

Hey. How long does it take to receive a response from the support team? And will the support service respond at all?

[Samarkand]

What's the deal with these invite codes? Is it a way to temporarily restrict new customers and lighten the load or is it something a bit more permanent and extreme? Never heard of an exchange doing that before.

I also have never seen this with a Bitcoin exchange. However, there are several other exchanges, who have
disabled registrations temporarily before.

E.g. the small European exchange bl3p.eu (from the Netherlands) is currently
not accepting sign-ups.

Unfortunately, due to the large influx of users we cannot process new registrations until further notice.

[becometa.pl]

Bitfinex decided to shut down registrations - even with invitation codes.
All of available ones are "expired or invalid" merely.
Confirmations: https://bitfinex.statuspage.io/incidents/1rxc9vcfqw4d and https://www.reddit.com/r/bitfinex/comments/7kzo4c/referral_link_ticket_answered_in_41_min_missing/drimvwr/

DON'T GET SCAMMED AND DON'T PAY ANOYONE FOR INVITATION! THEY WOULDN'T WORK ANYWAY!

[Timetwister]

Does anyone actually believe Tether received 305M $ in wire transfers in the last 5 days?

Yes, only a handful of people are determined to see everything in a negative light.

Institutional investors are even hesitant about the regulated futures so far and the trading volume at the CBOE has been pretty dismal.

That is to ignore that CBoE is a very small futures exchange and the contract is only supported by one broker so far. Also, it rather misses the purpose of futures. They are an instrument for trading and hedging primarily and are not used by investors.

Yet people claim that investors are wiring 305M $ to buy Tethers in order to buy cryptocurrencies in just 5 days?

Why not? Investors that actually want to hold Bitcoins cannot do it via the futures.

Why would anyone deposit USD to get Tether to buy another cryptocurrency afterwards, instead of just directly buying BTC with those USD (and then trading BTC for other crypto currencies if she wants)?

I was lending some BTC at Bitfinex, but I really don’t understand what’s going on with Tethers and it makes me think they are just being created out of thin air to buy real BTC.

[TheQuin]

it makes me think they are just being created out of thin air to buy real BTC.

On the one hand, we have a reputable New York accountancy firm that has inspected the bank statements and queried every item with Tether and then chosen to risk their reputation by publishing a report confirming that the funds exist.

On the other hand, we have a lot of people that think it is created out of thin air.

I know which is informing my decision to keep the funds I do on Bitfinex.

[Quickseller]

it makes me think they are just being created out of thin air to buy real BTC.

On the one hand, we have a reputable New York accountancy firm that has inspected the bank statements and queried every item with Tether and then chosen to risk their reputation by publishing a report confirming that the funds exist.

On the other hand, we have a lot of people that think it is created out of thin air.

I know which is informing my decision to keep the funds I do on Bitfinex.

You are mistaken, my friend. We have a lot of people saying USDT is created out of thin air -- this does not necessarily mean any of them actually think this, and I suspect many of them do not.

[TheQuin]

this does not necessarily mean any of them actually think this, and I suspect many of them do not.

That's a very good point. If Bitfinex is ever successful in getting any of them in court for defamation I'm sure the backstories of some of these characters will be fascinating.

[Quickseller]

this does not necessarily mean any of them actually think this, and I suspect many of them do not.

That's a very good point. If Bitfinex is ever successful in getting any of them in court for defamation I'm sure the backstories of some of these characters will be fascinating.

I suspect it is an orchestrated smear campaign paid for by one of their competitors. They apparently have retained a law firm to go after the guy behind the guy behind twitter.com/bitfinexed