Bitfinex, a mobile trading platform, has rolled out a major new update to their iOS and Android apps. Its main competitors, OKCoin and zTrader, are also working on making their app more attractive to customers. Bitfinex is a popular Bitcoin, Litecoin and Darkcoin trading platform. It has introduced a swathe of new features, graphical changes, optimizations, and bug fixes.

Public Release

The major update, ‘Update 1.9.5’, made the following changes to Bitfinex’s iOS and Android apps:

“Major Changes

  • iOS App - Public release of Bitfinex app for iOS. For improved security and customization the app uses an API key that you can generate with varied permissions. This allows for complex permissions control for your mobile app. Please read the setup instructions carefully (Android app also available).

  • Security - Users can now disable currencies and trading pairs from Account Settings > Currencies & Pairs.

  • Interface - The 3 main site sections (Exchange, Margin Trading, and Margin Funding) have been moved up to the top of the page as tabs.

Minor Changes

Obviously, the big news here is that the Bitfinex iOS app has announced its public release. However, the introduction of better coverage for Chinese- and Russian-language customers means greater accessibility, and therefore hopefully increased trading - good news for sellers looking to get a swift profit on a temporarily inflated Bitcoin, Litecoin, or Darkcoin price.

Cointelegraph spoke to the Ukrainian-born lead developer at Emercoin, Oleg Khovayko, about what he thought about the improved Russian-language coverage on the Bitfinex app:

“This is good news, since it will increase the adoption of Bitfinex by ex-USSR customers. However, to promote their services, they need to advertise on Russian-language-oriented sources, like ctyptor.net, bits.media, etc. Or, they could even use emcLNX to attract Russian customers.”

Developments arising from the introduction of better coverage for Chinese-language customers may also be of interest. As mentioned below, one of Bitfinex’s main competitors, OKCoin, is the biggest Bitcoin exchange in China, so could see customers move to this new player if it offers a wider array of features.

Mobile trading platform alternatives

For those unfamiliar with the trading platform, “Bitfinex is a trading platform for Bitcoin, Litecoin and Darkcoin with many advanced features including margin trading, exchange and peer to peer margin funding.”

“Fascinated by Bitcoin and the new possibilities it gives to people, the Bitfinex team has gathered experts from financial markets, programming and system administration to develop a versatile one-stop platform to make transfers, trade and a growing host of other services.”

However, Bitfinex is far from the only available mobile trading platform on the market. There’s also competitors like OKCoin and zTrader just to name a few.

OKCoin, as mentioned in a previous article, recently rolled out margin trading onto their iOS and Android apps in an effort to be more preferable over the competition:

“In our continued efforts to build the world’s best retail and institutional blockchain asset exchange, OKCoin has added margin trading to its iOS and Android Apps. OKCoin.cn CNY users can trade on up to 5x margin while OKCoin.com USD users can trade on up to 3.3x margin.”

The company, founded by CEO Star Xu in 2013, is currently the largest Bitcoin-industry company in China, employing 130 people at its headquarters in Beijing.

zTrader is also a big hit with customers. With between 10,000 and 50,000 installs, the trading app has a fair share of the market. However, it faced harsh criticism at launch, particularly from the vocal minority at Reddit, over its closed-source code, as many users were justifiably worried about the issue of losing their cryptocurrencies to a scam. However, the skepticism seems to have died down as users realised the creator’s aims were not malicious.