Compare
BF Bitfinex VS DY dYdX
These two exchanges don't share an obvious product overlap. Differences below come from our individual reviews of Bitfinex and dYdX.
| Bitfinex | dYdX | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2017 (dYdX Chain v4 launched October 2023) |
| 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. | Blocked for US, Canadian, UK, and sanctioned-territory persons at the protocol's terms-of-use level on the main front end; open-source front ends and direct chain access mean geographic enforcement is a terms-of-use matter rather than a technical one: read the restrictions before connecting a wallet. |
| Products | Spot, Margin, Peer-to-peer margin funding, Perpetual and dated futures, Securities and OTC block trades | Perpetual futures (primary product), Spot (newer, limited rollout) |
| Maker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Not yet verified |
| Taker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Not yet verified |
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
dYdX pros
- Fully non-custodial: funds sit in your own wallet and on-chain margin account, never in a company-controlled hot or cold wallet
- Fully open source, including the validator software, indexer, and web/iOS/Android front ends, so no single company operates the exchange once it's running
- Deep specialization in perpetual futures with an order book and matching engine built specifically for that product, rather than derivatives bolted onto a spot exchange
- Governance and fee schedule are transparent and on-chain, set by DYDX token-holder votes rather than a private company's internal decisions
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.