Poloniex–Numerous Trading Pairs, Mixed Reputation

All About Poloniex

Poloniex is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Wilmington, Delaware, USA and has often had some of the higher trade volumes of all crypto exchanges.  The company was created by Tristan D’Agosta in January 2014, who remains the CEO today. The exchange is based in the States today and is bound by the regulations of the United States. In February of this year the exchange was bought by Circle Internet Financial Ltd., a company that specialises in mobile payments and has the backing of the American banking giant Goldman Sachs.

Time to buy the dip?

The exchange stands out due to the vast numbers of trading pairs that they offer. There are other platforms which let you exchange currencies with fiat but this does not apply to Poloniex who only allow you to deal in cryptocurrency. This is more geared for more experienced traders who already have their cryptocurrencies ready to purchase. The exchange also provides rather advanced trading tools which are extremely useful for traders.

The exchange remains a controversial one to some extent given that it has had some concerns in relation to hacking. In March 2014, only two months after its launch it suffered a hack which saw it have 12.3% of the Bitcoin they held stolen. Poloniex took full responsibility for the attack and refunded its users, as well as dividing the currency stolen between the entire user database.

In October of 2017, it was found that there were two fraudulent apps on the Google Play Store which were found to be linked to the exchange. These apps sought to target users’ login details as well as their Gmail accounts.

At the end of 2017, the exchange announced that all of its users had to verify their identity in order to have access to their funds and continue using the exchange. In May of this year, all accounts that had not already been verified were frozen which left some users unable to withdraw their funds. The company said that once the accounts were verified they would cease to be frozen, although they had previously said that they would not stop users from gaining access to their funds and withdrawing their currency.

Trading Pairs and Trading Volume

As previously mentioned there is a vast amount of coins available on this exchange. The popular tokens such as Ethereum, Bitcoin, Ripple and Litecoin can all be traded on the exchange. Unfortunately, there is no fiat available on this exchange so one would need to purchase Bitcoin first to make trades.

The most popular trading pairs by volume on this exchange are ETH/BTC which have a 24 hours trading volume of $10,256,500 and make up 18.9% of the trades on the exchange. The overall trading volume of the exchange is at $54,268,088.

https://www.theatlas.com/charts

User Reputation and Customer Service

Poloniex’s reputation with its users and customer service is something which is not ideal for the exchange at this present moment. The company provides a detailed FAQ and request form for users who have not had their questions answered.

https://poloniex.com/contact

That being said there have been nightmare stories of users having to wait as much as 90 days to have their issues resolved when they have had problems. It seems that the primary issue can be found in the fact that the company has too many requests for them to deal with despite them wanting to.

Users mainly complain about the length of service times although some have been mentioning the aspects of slow withdrawal times which can be problematic.

These issues are something that new users should be aware of before going towards using this exchange.

Security

Poloniex tackles the issue of security in numerous ways. To get rid of hackers it looks to store its customers deposits in cold storage wallets offline wallets. It also looks to only keep the minimal amount of funds online in order to look to reduce risks of users gaining access to their funds.

The exchange also look to audit and monitor users’ activity on a regular basis to ensure no fraudulent activity is occurring. They then block accounts which are deemed to be creating issues.

For extra layers of security, Poloniex provides two-factor authentication. This drastically lessens the risk of hackers being able to get into your account, and every user should utilise the option.

With Circle being the new owners, the company looks to make Poloniex a regulated exchange by registering with the SEC and FINRA as both a broker and a dealer. It also looks to expand within the Asian market. Because it does not currently offer fiat it is not bound by certain regulations of other exchanges.

Creating an Account

The accounts are not ideal for beginners but are relatively simple to create.  There is a simple guide on the website which allows for the user to be able to go through the process. As of May of this year the firm requires 2 Factor Authentication to verify their account. There are also limits of withdrawals of $25,000 a day to verified users. In order to withdraw more users must contact the company directly to be able to take money out.