Bitfinex Defies Black Friday, Triples Minimum fee Without Prior Announcements

By Prashant Jha

If you cannot get over the deals you got on Black Friday, you must be the lucky one, as Bitfinex has certainly defied all odds to increase its minimum wire transfer fee from $20 to $60. The more surprising part was not the cost increase, but rather the silence maintained over it. Generally, when changes in terms of fee or payment or anything related to price is done, the customers are the first ones to be informed, however, the company certainly has other plans as they have maintained the silence throughout.

The move by the exchange can be understood since many cases of irregular withdrawals were on the rise. However, the decision to increase the prices also brought it under the category of one of the most expensive exchanges to withdraw your crypto fortune from, when compared to similar exchanges offering withdrawals at much steeper rates.

The surprising fact is, Bitfinex made several announcements regarding its token offering and a few other aspects. However, they deliberately kept silent on the increased withdrawal charges — the only way a user can know about the increment if they check the Exchange schedule right after the change.

Bitfinex has been experiencing delays in withdrawal leading upto a month, where they had to pay a compensation fee to the customers in some instances. The issue of slow processing is being worked out, but the delays could have prompted the company to increase the cost.

Kasper Rasmussen, the head of marketing for Bitfinex seems the increased price is not the cause of any worry to the company or its customers. He says,

“Our fee schedule remains subject to change at any time and for a wide array of reasons. This could reflect added complexities associated with a given token, transaction or process, or supply/demand factors.”

This incident is not the first change regarding the fee that the company has initiated without offering an official statement or reason behind it. Not so long ago, the Bitfinex also increased a charge of 3% on wire withdrawals. A report says,

“Two weeks ago, Bitfinex added a 3% fee on wire withdrawals that exceed more than $1 million in aggregated value or that accounted for more than two withdrawals during a period of 30 days. Although that fee was also effective immediately, Bitfinex did issue an announcement on that change.”

These changes into the system are being seen as a subtle way to defer the customer from making small wire withdrawals. The increased cost would undoubtedly limit the withdrawals to a monthly basis. However, the increased price would only make small retailers and investors move away. Many exchanges such as coinBase Pro offers the same service at $25, and Kraken is even lower at $5