Review on bitFlyer by Sharron Robertson

Name: bitFlyer
Item: bitFlyer
Rating: 4

June 16, 2019

BitFlyer Exchange Review.

bitFlyer, a bitcoin marketplace, boasts multi-sig security, cold-wallet storage for BTC, two-factor authentication on the security side in addition to margin trading, leverage, a prepaid Visa card and more. 
No doubt there’s lots going on at bitFlyer, but one thing that the trading platform has managed to avoid is a major security breach. They also boast security coverage for user assets.
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bitFlyer is arguably Japan’s No.1 cryptocurrency exchange based on trading volume. And while they lead in Japan, they’re also competitive on a global scale. 
For example, bitFlyer’s 2017 trading volume was USD 250 billion, USD 150 billion of which occurred in the final two months of the year when the BTC price was rallying.
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bitFlyer has the wind at its back in this sense, considering that half of world’s bitcoin trading volume occurs in cryptocurrency-friendly Japan. bitFlyer says it controls 70% of the country’s BTC/JPY trading volume. They also claim to control one-quarter of the world’s bitcoin trading volume.

If there’s any complaint on bitFlyer, it appears to surround its name for its FX trading dashboard, Lightning, which could lead to some confusion amid bitcoin’s Lightning network for payments.

But overall, bitFlyer is a model for other exchanges on security and customers service.
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Pros

Supports bitcoin and Ethereum in the United States. Takes USD wire deposits.
Web-based trading platforms including the Dashboard for novice traders and Lightning for more sophisticated traders interested in foreign exchange and margin trading.
They launched in the EU only supporting bitcoin, but they intend to expand to other coins, most likely the same ones they offer on the Japanese platform. Offers euro-denominated BTC
Fast deposits. Users boast of transfers including hardwire transfers showing up in their account within hours.
Speedy identity verification process. Supports segwit for transactions
Launched a yen-denominated Visa prepaid card. It supports bitcoin payments in the mainstream by allowing users to transfer funds from their bitFlyer account to the card and make payments at retailers that take Visa.

Cons

Doesn’t support altcoins outside of Japan, except Ethereum with a Trade Class account
They offer risky leverage amounts of up to 15% the account deposits
Transactions via the bitcoin Visa prepaid card suffered delays on the blockchain
Users complain of “ridiculous” spreads that can attach as much as a 20% difference in price
It appears pairs trading is limited to BTC/JPY, BTC/USD and BTC/EUR