Using our services

By signing up to Bitfern and opening an account, you represent and affirm that you are at least 18 years old, have the legal capacity to enter into this User Agreement by and between you and Bitfern Trust Company, LLC, and agree to be legally bound by the terms and conditions of this User Agreement in their entirety.

You agree and understand that by logging into your account or authenticating to our application programming interface (“API”) with your API key (“API Authenticating” or “API Authentication”) following any change to this User Agreement, your login or API Authentication, as applicable, shall constitute your agreement to the amended User Agreement by and between you and Bitfern Trust Company, LLC, and you agree to be legally bound by its terms and conditions as amended. Among other things, this means that, if you log into your account or API Authenticate following an amendment to this User Agreement, transactions that you or others have already undertaken, and benefits, such as trading fee discounts and rebates that you or others have earned, could be affected by the amended terms and conditions of this User Agreement. See, for example, the ‘Account Termination’ and ‘Account Remedies for Breach’ sections. You should, therefore, read this User Agreement from time to time. You agree and understand that we have the right to require your affirmative assent and continuing acceptance of this User Agreement, from time to time, as a condition of you accessing or using any Bitfern Services (as defined below), logging into your account, or API Authenticating, as applicable. If you do not agree to be bound by this User Agreement, you should not access or use any Bitfern Services, login to your account, or API Authenticate. Should you disagree to this User Agreement (including any changes or amendments), please close your account in accordance with the Account Closure section. In order to use Bitfern and the Bitfern Services, you must first successfully provide the required identification information pursuant to our Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) and Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) Compliance Program (collectively, our “BSA/AML Program”).

Please note that the section on Dispute Resolution contains an arbitration clause and class action waiver. By agreeing to this User Agreement, you agree to resolve all disputes through binding individual arbitration, which means that you waive any right to have the dispute decided by a judge or jury, and you waive any right to participate in collective action, whether that be a class action, class arbitration, or representative action.

Feel free to print and keep a copy of this User Agreement, but please understand that we reserve the right to change any of these terms and conditions at any time. But don’t worry, you can always find the latest version of this User Agreement here on this page.

Applicable Laws and Regulations

Your conduct on Bitfern is subject to the laws, regulations, and rules of any applicable governmental or regulatory authority (the “Applicable Laws and Regulations”) including, but not limited to:

You unequivocally agree and understand that by signing up to Bitfern and opening an account and using Bitfern in any capacity, you agree and understand to act in compliance with and be legally bound by this User Agreement as well as the Applicable Laws and Regulations. For the avoidance of doubt, the receipt of all trading fee discounts and rebates and continued use of your account is conditioned on continued adherence at all times to this User Agreement and all Applicable Laws and Regulations.

Digital Assets

As used herein, “Digital Asset” means a digital asset (also called a “cryptocurrency,” “virtual currency,” “digital currency,” or “virtual commodity”), such as bitcoin or ether, which is a digital representation of value based on (or built on top of) a cryptographic protocol of a computer network.

Your Bitfern Account

Account Opening

Only individuals or institutions that have opened an account (“Bitfern Account”) and successfully completed our BSA/AML Program are considered Bitfern customers (each, a “Bitfern Customer”). If you would like to provide access to your Bitfern Account to another individual or institution, this individual or institution must register a user account (“User Account”) to your Bitfern Account and successfully complete our BSA/AML Program. You agree that you will not allow any persons who have not successfully completed our BSA/AML Program to access or use your Bitfern Account. Subject to our BSA/AML Program, (i) your spouse or domestic partner may create a User Account that will link to the same Bitfern Account and (ii) a Bitfern Account may be opened on behalf of an institution by a beneficial owner and/or designated representative of the said institution. By doing so, you warrant and agree that you are a beneficial owner and/or designated representative of the said institution. You hereby authorize us, or a third-party service provider, to take any measures that we consider necessary to verify and authenticate your identity, confirm the information you submit about your linked bank account, and to take any action we deem necessary based on the results. To the extent that you would like more information on completing our BSA/AML Program, or adding another person to your account, please email support@bitfern.com.

Account Types

In order to access Bitfern, you must register and open a Bitfern Account. Each Bitfern Account has the following subaccounts:

Access to your Bitfern Account is limited solely to the individuals who have successfully registered and opened an associated User Account. Bitfern is a Premium Digital Platform for Vips. The least Digital assets such as Bitcoin that can be withdrawn is 3 BTC. You agree that you will not grant any person access to your User Account, except as described herein, as granting access may violate Applicable Laws and Regulations.

Account Access

You are only permitted to access your Bitfern Account using your User Account login credentials and other required forms of authentication. We require multi-factor authentication to keep your User Account safe and secure. As a result, you are required to use at least two forms of authentication when accessing your User Account and performing certain operations in your Bitfern Account. Forms of multi-factor authentication in addition to your login credentials may include verification tokens delivered through short message service (“SMS”) or a specified and supported two-factor authentication (“2FA”) application. If you choose to install and use a 2FA application on a device (e.g., phone or tablet) on which the operating system has been tampered with in any way, you do so at your own risk. This includes, but is not limited to, a “rooted” (Android) or “jailbroken” (iOS) device. We reserve the right in our sole discretion to prohibit access from or by any device on which the operating system has been or is suspected of having been modified or tampered with. You agree that we may provide your 2FA data to a third-party service provider in order to help us authenticate you.

You agree that your User Account login credentials and any other required forms of authentication, where applicable, have been chosen by you, when applicable. You also agree to keep your User Account login credentials and any other required forms of authentication, including your API keys, confidential and separate from each other, as well as separate from any other information or documents relating to your Bitfern Account and your User Account.

You agree and understand that your disclosure of login information to third parties may negate our user authentication measures and allow unauthorized access to your account. You agree that we cannot be held liable for unauthorized access or other loss resulting from your disclosure or other transmission, whether intentional or inadvertent, of your login information to third parties.

You agree and understand that you are solely responsible (and you will not hold us responsible) for managing and maintaining the security of your User Account login credentials and any other required forms of authentication, including your API keys. You further agree and understand that, we are not responsible (and you will not hold us responsible) for any unauthorized access to or use of your User Account and/or your Bitfern Account.

Account Communication

You agree and understand that all communication with you will be via email. We will use the email address on record for your User Account as our primary means of communicating with you. You acknowledge and understand that this is the only authorized way to contact us. Third parties may advertise or publish alternative ways to contact us or use other measures to pose as Bitfern. We cannot verify the authenticity of any such alternative contacts, and they pose a risk of fraud and other malfeasance, so we strongly recommend you do not attempt to contact us using these methods. You agree that we cannot be held liable for unauthorized access to your account or other loss resulting from such fraud or other malfeasance by third parties. To ensure that you receive all of our communications, you agree to keep your email address up-to-date and immediately notify us if there are any changes. Delivery of any communication to the email address on record is considered valid. If any email communication is returned as undeliverable, we retain the right to block your access to Bitfern until you provide and confirm a new and valid email address.

Account History

Your transaction history (“Transaction History”) is always available on Bitfern. Your Transaction History contains all of your trading activity, including pending transactions, deposits and withdrawals, as well as your Fiat Account and Digital Asset Account balances; however, please note that nothing in your Transaction History should be treated as a valuation.

We use commercially reasonable efforts to assure that the information contained in the notices we send you and your Transaction History is accurate and reliable; however, please understand that errors may sometimes occur and such errors do not impact the actual means and results of a given transaction.

Any transaction listed in your Transaction History or other communication including, but not limited to, receipts sent to your email on record shall be deemed and treated as authorized and correct, approved, and confirmed by you unless we receive Written Notice (as defined herein) to the contrary within three calendar days from the date the communication was sent.

Account Review and Acknowledgment

It is important for you to understand that it is your sole responsibility to review your Transaction History and any notices. You also understand that for the purposes of review and acknowledgment, you agree to be deemed to have reviewed your Transaction History and all notices on at least a monthly basis. If for any reason you are unable to do so, or you do not receive our communications, it is your responsibility to visit our Help Center and notify us immediately.

You understand that every communication sent to your email on record will be deemed to have been acknowledged as correct, approved, and confirmed by you unless we have received Written Notice to the contrary within three calendar days from the date the communication was sent.

We retain the right to make changes or adjustments to your Fiat Account and/or Digital Asset Account as necessary and appropriate, and in our sole discretion, to comply with any Applicable Laws and Regulations or to ensure market integrity. Please see the ‘Erroneous Orders’ and ‘Erroneous Trades’ sections for more information.

Account Closure

You may close any of your accounts at any time. You agree and understand that closing an account will not affect any rights and obligations incurred prior to the date of account closure. You may be required to either cancel or complete all open orders and, in accordance with the provisions of this User Agreement, provide transfer instructions of where to transfer any fiat currency and/or Digital Assets remaining in your account. You are responsible for any fees, costs, expenses, charges, or obligations (including, but not limited to, attorney and court fees or transfer costs of fiat currency or Digital Assets) associated with the closing of your account. In the event that the costs of closing of your account exceed the value in your account, you will be responsible for reimbursing us. You may not close any of your accounts to avoid paying any fees otherwise due or to avoid any examination related to our BSA/AML Program.

Submissions to Bitfern

We cannot agree to obligations of confidentiality or nondisclosure with regard to any unsolicited information you submit to us, regardless of the method or medium chosen. By submitting unsolicited information or materials to us or any Bitfern Service Provider, you or anyone acting on your behalf, agree that any such information or materials will not be considered confidential or proprietary.

We do not provide any facility for sending or receiving private or confidential electronic communications. You should not use Bitfern to transmit any communication for which you intend only you and the intended recipient(s) to read. Notice is hereby given that all messages and other content entered using Bitfern can and may be read by us, regardless of whether we are the intended recipients of such messages. Nevertheless, access to messages and other content will be accessible only by employees and Bitfern Service Providers that reasonably need such access.

Digital Asset trading involves a high degree of risk. The Digital Asset market is new and unproven and may not grow. Digital Assets may experience frequent price volatility due to (i) the small use of Digital Assets in the retail and commercial marketplace in comparison to relatively large use by speculators and (ii) the lack of assurance that a person or institution who accepts Digital Assets as payment today will continue to do so in the future. Such price volatility may adversely affect an investment in Digital Assets so prior to using Bitfern, please evaluate the merits and risks of the investment and be able to bear the economic risk of losing your entire investment in a short period of time. No material on Bitfern should be considered as an offer by Bitfern to sell or solicitation by Bitfern of any offer to buy Digital Assets.