Compare
BF Bitfinex VS UP Upbit
Both exchanges offer Spot. The differences below come from our individual reviews of Bitfinex and Upbit.
| Bitfinex | Upbit | |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 | 2017 |
| 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 primarily for South Korean residents: full KRW trading requires a real-name-verified account at K Bank, Upbit's sole partner bank, plus Korean identity verification. Separate Upbit Singapore, Upbit Indonesia, and Upbit Thailand entities serve those markets under local licenses. Not available to US persons or several sanctioned countries. |
| 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: Upbit's KRW pairs have run around 0.05%, and BTC/USDT crypto pairs were cut from a standard 0.25% to a promotional 0.05% in mid-2026 amid competitive pressure, so check the live rate and which promotion (if any) is active before trading |
| Taker fee | 0% as of a December 2025 platform-wide change; verify this remains current, since fee policy can shift again | Same volatility applies here: verify current tier and any active promotional rate before trading, since Upbit has changed crypto-market fees more than once in response to fee-free competitors |
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
Upbit pros
- By far the deepest KRW order-book liquidity of any Korean exchange, useful for anyone actually trading in won
- Real-name bank verification through K Bank adds a genuine anti-fraud layer most offshore exchanges don't have
- Wide listing of Korea-origin and Korea-popular tokens that are thinly traded or unlisted elsewhere
- Moved to holding over 99% of assets in cold storage following its 2025 breach, well above Korea's 80% legal minimum
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.