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Poloniex popularly referred to as Polo, is a digital asset exchange platform established in 2014, headquartered in Delaware, United States. It is a renowned name in the cryptocurrency industry, and it incessantly boasts the highest trading volumes in terms of altcoins.
Poloniex is the ideal exchange for investors who want an unmatched selection of altcoin trading pairs.
The way the exchange is set up makes it more suitable for more experienced cryptocurrency traders – it isn’t the place to buy bitcoin for the first time. If you wish to use fiat currencies to buy digital currencies, then you’ll need to do so on another exchange platform such as Coinbase.
Currency support
The wide range of altcoins available for trading is the booming pull for most Poloniex users. Nonetheless, users on this exchange can only make deposits in cryptocurrency. The company does not support credit card transactions or bank transfers.
After making your deposit, there is an option to store the value in USDT (Tether), this is a digital currency that stands for the US dollars (for instance, 1 USDT should be the same as 1 US dollar)
For those who are nervous about the volatility of the market, this is pretty handy.
While this is a beneficial tool, the fact that the exchange does not support fiat currencies makes it somewhat tricky to trade out of a cryptocurrency position because you’ll require a different exchange platform. As noted earlier, the vast assortment of trading pairs offered on this exchange makes it a pretty attractive platform, with options for altcoin trading in Ether, Bitcoin, Monero, and USDT.
Country support
There are no real geographical restrictions in place for Poloniex clients, although the company is located in the United States. This boils down largely to the way the platform is based on pure cryptocurrency setup. Currently, Poloniex is not required to conform to local banking and finance regulations, as there is no fiat currency used. When compared to fully regulated exchange platforms like Gemini, Ploniex appears to be operated with a particular level of freedom.
Poloniex Fees
This company offers some of the lowest trading fees in the cryptocurrency market, with the highest taker fee fixed at 0.25% for trading volume under 600 BTC. The maker fee begins at 0.15%, which is unusually low for crypto trading exchanges. Working with enormous trade sizes, you can almost eliminate the fees.
Bear in mind that one of the main demerits of the company is that is doesn’t permit clients to withdraw more than 2,000 dollars a day. This could be a significant obstacle if you’re trading huge amounts of Bitcoin.
Is Poloniex a secure exchange?
A transparent and compact layout of the security features of this exchange is somewhat difficult to come by. However, Poloniex does claim the following:
“The vast majority of client deposits are stored offline in air-tight cold storage. We only keep enough online to expedite active trading, which considerably minimizes exposure and risk.”
Apart from this, how the company’s security works is a bit of a mystery. Generally, if only to sleep a little easier at night, users like to know what measures are in place to protect trading accounts.
The pretty important 2FA (Two-Factor Authentication) is made available to users so that at least their accounts aren’t susceptible to hacks with just a single password. As a rule, try as much as possible not to keep substantial sums on any exchange for an extended period of time. If you have a hardware wallet, store coins offline in cold storage under your control. Try neat and affordable hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor.
Customer support
For many Poloniex clients, the customer support service is a real bone of contention. Many customers claim to have been made to wait for up to and above 90 days. Reports about the customer support on online forums like Reddit become annoying to read after a while. Some clients feel like they’re knocking on the door of a haunted house when trying to resolve their issues.
This does not really seem like anything scam-worthy or malicious from the customer support service, but it could be more a sign of struggle to deal with huge demand. It’s a common problem for most of the industry as essentially all platforms struggle to keep up with incredible interest and expansion.
Public opinion/online Poloniex reviews
Problems with the customer support service as well as other concerns really do leave a black mark on the Poloniex exchange. It’s surprising to see such lowly evaluations littering the web, given the fact that this platform is a powerhouse of an exchange.
Other underlying obstacles for traders include questions about liquidity and the ability to withdraw funds. Tales of withdrawal requests “awaiting approval” for apparently endless periods of time account for most of the criticisms.
As said earlier, the strife to trade out of a digital currency position really comes to the forefront. A quick and painless withdrawal process is essential if you wish to liquidate funds after trading.
Seeing your funds frozen while awaiting approval could be pretty exhausting. This certainly makes people think twice about regularly working with this exchange.
Margin trading features
The margin trading feature Poloniex offers is one aspect in which it dominates the competition.
Traders can swiftly and efficiently use a peer to peer functionality to borrow capitals and begin margin trading.
Not only can users secure trading funds, but they can also take advantage of the lending functionality to operate with other traders. This can be especially beneficial for both parties when the market is strong and is trending upward.
Conclusion: Is Poloniex a good exchange?
Poloniex’s enormous trading volumes imply that it really operates smoothly and without glitches for the bulk of users. But complaints and public opinion are factors that do make people think twice about the company. The incredible access to trading pairs and altcoins is a real advantage, but if you can’t withdraw your money on time, then it’s all a waste of time.
Conceivably Poloniex’s high volume and popularity are choking its customer support and problem-solving efforts. There’s a myriad of competition now, so you may want to check out some other options—especially if you simply want to deal with major digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
Poloniex exchange review
Pros
- High trading volume
- Trustworthy and secure exchange
- Low fees
Cons
- Slow support
- Phone support is absent
- No Mobile App
- Fiat payment options are absent