How safe is Poloniex's cryptocurrency exchange platform? Right through this Poloniex review you will learn how this once insignificant substitute exchange gained user-trust, innovative functionality, and subsequently swallowed its competitors' market share. From full customer refunds after a minor security breach, to a successful infrastructure redesign, and a bit a sheer luck - it's no secret that Poloniex's history is quite the interesting read.
Poloniex is a crypto-to-crypto global exchange operating in the US. However, it has been in operation since January The lack of information on co-founders, top management, and company ownership, as well as the absence of a physical office have caused some to question the business soundness and legitimacy of Poloniex. Even for me, writing this analysis of Poloniex, I find it strange that the founders have chosen to remain so withdrawn.
The safety of user funds on the exchange has been an active subject of discussion on online forums such as Bitcointalk and Reddit. Meanwhile, public knowledge about founders, management and investors of exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp give them more credibility.
Even with these existing doubts, however, Poloniex has continued to grow in terms of its user base, transaction volumes and the number of cryptos it supports. Poloniex receives the largest amount of traffic in the crypto exchange industry. Its website gets over 50 million visits per month.
The closest exchange in this metric is Coinbase with about 45 million monthly visits. Other top sources include the United Kingdom 4. Another feature that differentiates Poloniex with other exchanges is its lack of support for fiat currency.
Some users boast that this is one of the main advantages, allow breathing-room form government regulators as the exchange does not deal in fiat currency. That being said, Poloniex supports a large number of crypto assets.
As of Augustthe number of listed coins stood at over It must be said that after the demise of Poloniex's largest rival exchange, Cryptsy, the former acquired virtually all of it's market share and user-base. As the most trusted alternative, users flocked to sign -up. However, Shapeshift lacks most of the tools and services traders require such as graphs. Poloniex offers no mobile applications, but the mobile version of the website works just as smoothly as the desktop version.
The exchange has also made an API available, through which third-party developers can create tools for data analysis and account management.
Poloniex is popular with users seeking to convert from one cryptocurrency to another, margin trade, and lend. Its services are accessible from anywhere around the world and it has few requirements for signing up and trading as compared to Coinbase, Bitstamp and Kraken.
As with all centralized exchange audits, I would like to remind readers of this Poloniex review that the exchange controls all private keys to the wallets holding your cryptocurrencies. The exchange assures users that it stores much of their deposits in offline "air-gapped" cold storage.
It offers 2-factor authentication for account holders, as well as browser recognition tools. In an unprecedented move at the timea statement was issued assuring users the trade bitcoin on bittrexx how to trade bitcoin on poloniex my 10 day review all funds would be reimbursed.
Poloniex carried through their promise to its users several months later. As the Bitcoin project itself has shown, lack of information about a founder is not always a sign of bad intent.
However, as a precaution, it is advisable to keep on the exchange only as much value as you need to lend, trade or exchange at any given time, especially considering Poloniex is a centralized platform with a high custodial risk. The Poloniex interface works nicely, except when the site is under strain from DDOS or legitimate peak trading times. In the whole interface was very successfully redesigned.
There are many positive Poloniex reviews mentioning the trade bitcoin on bittrexx how to trade bitcoin on poloniex my 10 day review nicely the website presentation has come along since See the evolution for yourself:.
The overall user experience is close to that of using Bittrex or Kraken - though slightly more intuitive then the latter.
Choosing a pairing, however, is not as straightforward as Shapeshift. You may have to work to find the page from which to choose your pairing. A common complaint from users is that it takes a long time for deposits to reflect in the user account. Users have also reported a few cases of coins sent but never showing up in the receiving account. Some have reported that tickets sometimes take months to resolve. Signing up for an account on Poloniex is easier than on most other major digital asset exchanges.
While it observes some level of Know Your Customer requirements, the process is less stringent partly due to the fact that the exchange accepts only crypto deposits.
Users are only allowed one account, and registering more than one could result in suspension or expulsion from the platform. Each account, however, offers exchange, trading and lending services. You automatically have access to all three services when you sign up for any of them. The exchange service facilitates the movement of value from one crypto to another.
On the other hand, the margin trading service enables you to leverage your cryptos and earn gains from price changes. If you are risk averse but still want to make a profit on the platform, you can put up your cryptocurrencies for others to borrow and trade with. In exchange, you will receive a guaranteed interest rate. When you engage in margin trading, you essentially have access to the three sections available on Poloniex. You can borrow funds from the lending section to invest through the margin trading section.
In the event you want to move your value to another type of crypto, you will need to use the classic exchange section. It is also through the exchange section that you make deposits. Once your signup is complete this takes less than five minutes you are ready to deposit and start trading. The most differentiating feature from the rest of the trading platforms, however, is the fact that Poloniex offers more risk-averse crypto holders the option of lending out their coins.
In addition to the three sections separated according to function, Poloniex also offers three levels of account verification. You get the first level of verification by providing an email address, your name and country of residence at the signup stage. You can exchange, trade and lend with this level of verification, with the only limitation being how much you can deposit and the trade bitcoin on bittrexx how to trade bitcoin on poloniex my 10 day review daily.
If you need to have your daily limits increased, then you will have to apply for level-two verification. You will do this by providing a physical address, postal address, phone number, date of birth and passport ID. Along with the application, Poloniex requires you to upload an ID photo and a passport photo. You apply for this level by reaching out to support.
The deposit and withdrawal limits Poloniex offers are relatively higher than you will get from accounts on Coinbase, Kraken and Bitstamp. Since Poloniex accepts only crypto deposits and withdrawals, it is one of the cheapest exchanges to use. Both the person putting up an offer to buy or sell the maker and the person picking and accepting an offer the taker pay transaction fees.
Generally a maker pays fewer fees in a transaction than a taker. In both cases, the higher the amount involved in a trade, the lower the fees paid.
Maker and taker fees apply to both the exchange and the trading platform. Lending fees are set by those putting up their funds for borrowing. Since the market is competitive, the lower the interest a lender charges, the more successful they are at having traders taking their offers.
Nevertheless, average loan offers on the platform charge at least 0. Should you like to try something different to Poloniex, the following are the most popular alternative cryptocurrency exchanges:. September 01, by BestBitcoinExchange — 24 Comments. Buy Bitcoin Now Rank. Buy Now Go to eToro eToro. Read More Buy Now. Thank you for submitting your comment for moderation. Notify of new replies to this comment.
I made the mistake of not doing my due diligence on the trade bitcoin on bittrexx how to trade bitcoin on poloniex my 10 day review. I signed up using their exhaustive verification process and never received any confirmations after submitting quite personal information.
I also subsequently submitted support ticket regarding the matter with no response as well. Hopefully the information disappeared into the ether, but I remain very suspicious. Thanks for getting in touch, we are beginning to see more and more comments like this, we will re-evaluate soon and see if it stands by this feedback. Apparently they have stolen my coins.
And stolen coins from hundreds of others. I made a deposit to the correct address and nothing has appeared in my account. I have full documentation including screenshots of the entire process and 's of confirmations on the blockchain.
The deposit does not show up in my account after several weeks and Poloniex does not even acknowledge support tickets. I posted the full documentation and have requested updates, but not the trade bitcoin on bittrexx how to trade bitcoin on poloniex my 10 day review a single response from Poloniex.
I made a complaint the the Better Business Bureau, but the the BBB says they cannot get in touch with them and it appears that they are out of business. I don't know why the authorities have not shut this down yet. People should be going to prison over this. We are hearing more and more of feedback like this.
Their Bytecoin wallet is faulty at the moment as it's not letting users send Bytecoin to external wallets. Far from ideal, thanks for sharing. Wow, this place has interesting reviews. I'm glad I read these as I will never use Poloniex.
Much of the material appears for the first time in book form. You made the difference for me. I should have read the reviews at Trustpilot before going ahead.