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BF Bitfinex VS BH Bithumb
Both exchanges offer Spot. The differences below come from our individual reviews of Bitfinex and Bithumb.
| Bitfinex | Bithumb | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2014 |
| Regions | Blocked for US persons and entities since a 2021 New York Attorney General settlement. Available in most other regions, with licensed derivatives operations in El Salvador; verify local availability before signing up. | Built for South Korean residents: full access requires a Korean mobile phone number and a real-name-verified account at Bithumb's partner bank. Registration for new overseas users has been suspended since 2021, and Bithumb blocks access from roughly 21 jurisdictions under FATF-related restrictions, including North Korea and Iran. |
| Products | Spot, Margin, Peer-to-peer margin funding, Perpetual and dated futures, Securities and OTC block trades | Spot |
| Maker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Verify current tier: Bithumb runs a tiered, promotion-heavy schedule (KRW-market rates have ranged from a standard 0.25% down to 0.04% for applicants to fee events) so check the live rate and any active promotion before trading |
| Taker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Verify current tier: same volatility applies, Bithumb has run limited-time maker/taker promotions on top of its standard tiered schedule more than once |
Bitfinex pros
- Eliminated maker and taker fees across spot, margin, derivatives, and OTC trading platform-wide in December 2025, with no volume tiers or token-holding requirements
- Deep order-book liquidity and a mature peer-to-peer margin funding market that lets users lend idle assets directly to traders for yield
- One of the longest continuous operating histories in the industry, dating to 2012, and still functioning after surviving its own major hack
- A meaningful share of the bitcoin stolen in 2016 is now being returned to the exchange following a landmark US Department of Justice forfeiture case
Bithumb pros
- Long operating history since 2014 and consistently South Korea's second-deepest KRW order book after Upbit
- Wide listing of Korea-origin and Korea-popular tokens that see little volume on international exchanges
- Free KRW deposits and a flat, low KRW withdrawal fee through its real-name-verified bank partner
- Site and app support multiple languages including English, though functional support for non-Korean users is thinner than the language selector suggests
This table is generated from the same data behind our individual exchange reviews. See methodology for how it's put together. Fee figures marked "not yet verified" need confirming against live terms before this page is treated as launch-ready.