Compare
BF Bitfinex VS BX BitMEX
Both exchanges offer Spot. The differences below come from our individual reviews of Bitfinex and BitMEX.
| Bitfinex | BitMEX | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Historically available worldwide outside the US and a short list of other restricted jurisdictions. As of September 2026 the exchange is winding down entirely and is not accepting new registrations anywhere. |
| Products | Spot, Margin, Peer-to-peer margin funding, Perpetual and dated futures, Securities and OTC block trades | Spot, Perpetual futures, Dated futures |
| Maker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Moot given the September 2026 shutdown; historically a tiered volume-based schedule with maker rebates on major perpetual contracts. |
| Taker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Moot given the September 2026 shutdown; historically around 0.075% at the base tier on flagship perpetual contracts, lower with volume. |
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
BitMEX pros
- Invented the modern perpetual futures contract, the product type most derivatives exchanges reviewed on this site now offer
- Zero customer funds lost to hacks across more than 11 years of operation
- Deep historical liquidity on BTC and ETH perpetuals while the platform was active
- 24/7 multilingual support with a genuine (if inconsistent) track record of resolving disputes
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.