Create your Stratum account

Stratum automates Bitfinex margin funding without ever taking custody of your coins. Getting started takes a few minutes: create an account, verify your email, turn on two-factor authentication, then connect a scoped Bitfinex API key. This page covers signing up and securing the account; adding your Bitfinex key is the next step.

1. Choose how to sign in

There are three ways to create and access a Stratum account. Pick whichever you prefer — they all lead to the same account.

  • Email and password. Sign up with your email and a password between 12 and 128 characters. Stratum creates the account and emails you a verification link before you sign in.
  • Magic link (passwordless). Enter your email and Stratum sends a single-use sign-in link. The link works for both new and existing accounts, and it stays valid for 20 minutes. For privacy, the request always responds the same way whether or not the email is already registered.
  • Google sign-in. Sign in with your Google account through the standard Google redirect flow; Stratum links or creates your account and signs you in.

Apple sign-in is not available.

2. Verify your email

Your email needs to be verified before you can connect a Bitfinex key or create a strategy.

  • If you signed up with a password, Stratum emails a verification link — open it to confirm your address.
  • If you used a magic link, clicking the emailed link both signs you in and verifies your email in one step.

3. Turn on two-factor authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) uses time-based one-time codes (TOTP) from an authenticator app. 2FA is required before Stratum will store any Bitfinex API key — a key controls funds, so Stratum will not encrypt or save one until 2FA is enabled.

  • Start setup and scan the QR code (or copy the setup key) into your authenticator app, such as Google Authenticator, Authy, or 1Password.
  • Confirm by entering a current code from the app along with your account password. Stratum then shows you one-time backup codes — save them somewhere safe, because they are shown only once and let you sign in if you lose your device.
  • After that, signing in asks for a code from your authenticator app on top of your chosen sign-in method.

4. Connect a Bitfinex key and start in paper mode

With 2FA on and your email verified, you can connect Bitfinex and set up your first strategy.

  • Add a scoped API key. Stratum needs a Bitfinex key with funding read and write plus wallets and account read. Withdrawals and trading must stay off — Stratum reads the key's real permissions from Bitfinex, rejects any key that can withdraw or trade, and encrypts the key with AES-256-GCM before storing it. See Add your Bitfinex API key for the full walkthrough, and Security for how keys are handled.
  • Create one strategy per currency. Each currency you fund gets a single strategy, made of allocation buckets where you choose a lending algorithm per bucket. Browse the options on the Strategies page.
  • Backtest, then start in paper. You can run a backtest over historical funding data to see how a configuration would have behaved — these figures are modeled, not guaranteed, and assume ideal fills. We recommend starting each strategy in paper mode, which simulates against live rates without placing real offers, then switching to live when you are ready. Try the backtest calculator to explore returns.

Next: add your Bitfinex API key, or read how Stratum works.