Poloniex.com Review 2021 – Scam or Not?
NEWS: Poloniex is quite overloaded at the moment, the support is answering very slowly and the website itself is quite slow and using lots of your computers resources. At the moment, you can try Binance as a alternative for Altcoin trading.
Poloniex is one of the most diverse cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. They provide a superb liquidity for the majority of altcoins, which can be traded against Bitcoin.
Tristan D’Agosta founded the exchange in January of 2014. The Poloniex executive level is kept anonymous, probably because digital currencies are still a bit shady business and they don’t have a license for offering exchange services in the United States. The company is based in San Francisco, California. They are focused on the United States market but tend to attract altcoin traders from all over the world as well.
Verification on Poloniex
The account creation on Poloniex is rather simple and can be done in under 5 minutes. The user provides necessary information and needs to click on the confirmation email in order to complete the creation of an account.
The verification process is similar to the verification on other exchanges, and it has two levels.
The first verification level requires email verification, first and last name as well as country of residence. When completed, the daily withdrawal is set to 2,000 US dollars, and margin trading is enabled.
The second verification level requires personal information, address, phone number and a scan of photo ID (passport, national ID, driver’s license) and a picture of the user holding Photo ID. It can take a few days for the staff to review the submission and to verify the account. In the case of any problems, a user will be notified to contact support regarding the verification.
When completed, this level of verification allows daily withdrawal limit of 25,000 US dollars.
There’s also a third level of verification which can provide limits higher of 25,000 US dollars. Additional details about the requirements aren’t publicly available, so users or companies need to contact support.
The exchange doesn’t support FIAT currencies. Deposits are possible only in digital currencies. The closest thing to FIAT currency is Tether USD, which is basically US dollar placed on the Blockchain.
The support for digital currencies, on the other hand, is enormous:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Dash (DASH)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Zcash (ZEC)
- Monero (XMR)
And over 80 other popular digital currencies are available for trading on Poloniex. The full list can be seen here for registered users, or on the live trading screen for non-registered users.
Poloniex Fees
The trading platform uses a standard maker-taker model which encourages market liquidity by rewarding the makers with a lower fee. It likewise results in a better market spread, because it motivates the makers to outbid each other. This model is particularly important for Poloniex since they are one of the most diverse exchanges with over 80 supported cryptocurrencies and it’s a significant challenge to provide a good liquidity for all of them.
The users are charged according to the following fee schedule:
- below 600 BTC – 0.15 percent for the maker, 0.25 percent for the taker
- from 600 to 1,200 BTC – 0.14 percent for the maker, 0.24 percent for the taker
- from 1,200 to 2,400 BTC – 0.12 percent for the maker, 0.22 percent for the taker
- from 2,400 to 6,000 BTC – 0.10 percent for the maker, 0.20 percent for the taker
- from 6,000 to 12,000 BTC – 0.08 percent for the maker, 0.16 percent for the taker
- from 12,000 to 18,000 BTC – 0.05 percent for the maker, 0.14 percent for the taker
- from 18,000 to 24,000 BTC – 0.02 percent for the maker, 0.12 percent for the taker
- from 24,000 to 60,000 BTC – 0.00 percent for the maker, 0.10 percent for the taker
- from 60,000 to 120,000 BTC – 0.00 percent for the maker, 0.08 percent for the taker
- over 120,000 BTC – 0.00 percent for the maker, 0.05 percent for the taker
For lenders, there’s a 15 percent flat fee to earned interest.
The fees calculation is based on the last 30 days of trading volume for each user and automatically adjusts the fees according to the volume.
Deposits and withdrawals are free of charge on Poloniex.
Trading
The trading screen on the exchange is very smart. It offers multiple time frames, multiple-option candlesticks and both Fibonacci levels and Bollinger bands. This trading view is available for all of the 200+ trading pairs.
There are four primary markets on the platform:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Monero (XMR)
- Tether (USDT)
Each market has its own box and all trading pairs listed below. During last year, Poloniex accounted for over 99 percent of Tether trading volume and remains the only market with high liquidity for Tether trading.
There are three main order types:
- Buy
- Sell
- Stop Limit
These orders are available for all currency pairs.
Similar to BTC-e, there’s a troll box – but despite the moderator’s effort, it can be malicious, and crooks are looking to trick the new users. Tip: it’s called “troll box” for a reason, information found in this public chat can’t be trusted.
The exchange supports margin trading, and it offers 2.5x leverage on some currency pairs:
- BTC/XMR
- BTC/ETH
- BTC/MAID
- BTC/XRP
- BTC/DASH
- BTC/FCT
- BTC/LTC
- BTC/STR
- BTC/BTS
- BTC/CLAM
- BTC/DOGE
There’s also a lending option, where users can offer or demand a loan with the certain interest rate.
The exchange currently doesn’t offer to trade futures and derivates at the moment.
Ease of Use
The interface looks great, and it’s easy to use. Shifting between more than 200 trading pairs is quick, and the website looks great.
There are no apps for Android and iOS, but the platform is responsive, and it looks good on mobile devices. Some third-party apps were made with Poloniex API, but the majority of users agree that these apps cannot be trusted, especially when it comes to trading with money.
Poloniex Customer support
The exchange offers support via email, ticket and directly from troll box. The fastest way to get the answer is by asking the moderators directly in troll box, but they are known for delays. The support isn’t one of the advantages of Poloniex – they take too long to respond, and the responses often aren’t complete. There’s also a knowledge base, but it isn’t extensive, and it covers only basic questions.
User experience of Poloniex.com
There are some scam reports related to Poloniex. Some of them accuse the exchange of tempering with Ethereum Classic and making organized pumps and dumps (artificially blowing the price up and then suddenly crashing it). The accusations remain without much evidence, but many users commented on the posts related to it.
The scam accusations mainly come from the users who haven’t received free ETC at the time, so it’s fair to say that the majority of accusations were biased at the time of writing.
The website of Poloniex is quite slow and it seems the developers did not do a good job here. Compared to other exchanges, it seems to use lots of resources in your Browser and if you have a couple of tabs opened at the same time, the performance of the site goes close to unusable.
Poloniex Security
Like other trading platforms, Poloniex offers two-factor authentication for both login and withdrawal authorization. Also, an email confirmation is required for withdrawals. The exchange claims that the majority of customer funds are held in cold storage, as well as that they are monitoring the platform 24/7 for any unusual activity.
The exchange was hacked in March of 2014, just two months after launch and at that occasion hackers stole 12.3 percent of Bitcoin on the exchange, which was approximately 50,000 US dollars at the time. The vulnerability was easily fixed, and there were no incidents since.
Poloniex wasn’t able to absorb the loss, so Mr. D’Agosta, CEO of the exchange, stated:
“If I had the money to cover the entire debt right now, I would cover it in a heartbeat. I simply don’t, and I can’t just pull it out of thin air.”
Instead, the fee was raised from 0.2 percent to 1.5 percent, and the loss was equally distributed to all customer accounts. After two months the balances were restored, and the fee was returned to normal 0.2 percent.
Mr. D’Agosta handled the situation very well, by going public immediately and explaining what happened. His reaction was applauded by the community and played a great role in reducing the reputation damage to Poloniex.
The exchange has email and SMS notification, but PGP encryption isn’t used in communication.
Poloniex Review Conclusion
Poloniex is an excellent exchange for all those looking to trade altcoins as well as Bitcoins.
Pros
- Many altcoins to trade in
- Margin trading in altcoins
- Good liquidity
Cons
- No fiat currency trading
- Pumps and Dumps
- Poor support
A great exchange with a good reputation.
Do you have experience with this Bitcoin Exchange? Please share it!
Go to Poloniex.com
They made two withdrawal transaction today: transaction ID is invalid, non existent on blockchain (Etherscan). Funds disappeared for good. Steal is completed !
I opened another ticket and probably will wait two weeks longer or more before any answer.
Definitely a big scam.
Poloniex formally seized and confiscated my assets: withdrawals not working and locked in “awaiting confirmation” mode since 14 days (confirmation link broken), no answer to tickets, absolute silence, they just disappeared. Avoid like plague.
Poloniex went Scam. They ignore Tickets and verification Requests, Support is in complete hiding for Month.
These Thiefs get all Coins they could but as soon as there is a problem your lost.
No stars, stay away from these Scammers !!
HORRIBLE, they have stolen my money! They will not get back to me and i’ve done as the instructions stated, they are thieves and will not return my message. I have alot of money that I tried to withdraw and was given an error message but complete. NO ONE WILL ANSWER YOU< PREPARED TO BE SCAMMED GUYS< REMOVE YOUR ACCT ASAP OR DON"T JOIN THIS SCAM!
If you don’t have the high limits account then you might lost your money. The withdrawal from Non high limits accounts are sending to “Awaiting Approval” this seems to be a manually transfer though it’s very likely there is no people working on that anymore. In other words its very likely Poloniex will turn in a confirmed scam soon.
There is no one in the last week (with non high limits account/2FA) who got the withdrawal through. This is bad for all cryptocurrency marketing as we loose credibility.
What a bunch of scammers/crooks. Poloniex does not have any customer service whatsoever. It has whats called “support center” that receives your claim and never make a reply. BEWARE they will not address withdrawal/deposit problems so your money WILL GET STUCK there if there are any problems. Because of the low initial withdrawal limit($2000) people are limited to sending multiple transactions when they pull out of Poloniex and therefore forced to pay higher transaction fees. It will take weeks and months now to get approved for higher withdrawal limit.
What’s worse is that there is no contact number(all the numbers I was able to find were unresponsive), or a form of contact that could get your problem resolved when you run into issues on the exchange.
Stay the hell away from this site!!
I transferred coins to my local wallet after purchasing on poloniex on the 10th. I received a confirmation of the transaction, but the coins never arrived in my wallet. I searched the transaction ID, and my transaction was not even there. (actually the id was for a transaction that occurred on the 8th, 2 days prior.) It’s been 5 days AND Poloniex has ignored my support ticket. Im missing 100,000 coins and don’t know if I will ever get them back.
Agree with all the other comments. Support tickets not answered, was locked out of my account for some time today, can not increase withdrawal limits although withdrawals of 2k per day have worked so far.
Zero stars. Stay away.
Thieves…..simple amd plain……ticket 227295…..5 days no response at all……lost my ethereum.with these crooks
I deposited a full Ether in two parts (from coinbase)11 days ago. The first half never appeared but the second half did. I contacted their customer service through their support ticket avenue. They have still not gotten back to me- not even to say they are working on it or will be getting to it. This is highly unprofessional. I still don’t have my half Ether back. They are in over their heads at this company. I want my .5 Ether back! At least help me. Give me a time frame. Because they don’t this company is a scam in my book.
Poloniex in the next HashOcean!
Beware, the exchange looks great with lots of views and capability but Support is completely non existent, any issues that limit your access to transacting are never likely to get addressed. i have a number of tickets raised and not one has had anything but an automated response.
Putting money in is no problem but, if like me, you don’t have the level 2 authorisation to withdraw higher amounts your money will be stuck in the exchange. it will now take me 35 transactions each at least 24hrs apart to shift out my funds.
if you have a problem it seems you are Doomed, I have yet to find anyone who has received any support with any issue.
After reading these comments now I know I’m not the only one with problems. I requested a withdraw on 2017-06-08 16:57:29, started a support ticket after 24 hours, everyday I reply to the same ticket asking for a status without making threats and remaining professional, but no response.
I do believe it is time to get in contact with Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Department of the Treasury. They administer registered Money Services Businesses in which Poloniex is registered under #31000091844018. https://www.fincen.gov/fcn/financial_institutions/msb/msbstateselector.html# (Search under Legal Name “Poloniex”)
Customer service and communication are essential to gaining the trust of a community, especially in cryptocurrency trading platform, Poloniex has continued to fail in this aspect.
If others can post information of when you initiated your withdrawal and if you feel comfortable the currency with amount to get a bigger picture of the current situation. There are laws in this country that protect consumers especially if the entity is operating on US land.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1963737.0;topicseen
I solicited a withdrawl the 0.9BTC in 27MAY 2017, to my wallet on MERCADOBITCOIN.COM.BR, and the POLONIEX put the status AWAITING APROVAL, but the 0.9BTC was debited on my wallet in POLONIEX instantly, and until now 12JUN nothing was transferred for me. I opened 2 tickets to resolve my problem, but the POLONIEX didn’t nothing to resolve my problem. And I need this BTC, cause are mine, I bought. And the Support Center do not answer my tickets. I don’t know more what I do.
I solicited a withdrawl the 0.9BTC in 27MAY 2017, to my wallet on MERCADOBITCOIN.COM.BR, and the POLONIEX put the status AWAITING APROVAL, but the 0.9BTC was debited on my wallet in POLONIEX instantly, and until now 12JUN nothing was transferred for me. I opened 2 tickets to resolve my problem, but the POLONIEX didn’t nothing to resolve my problem. And I need this BTC, cause are mine, I bought. And the Support Center do not answer my tickets. I don’t know more what I do.
I solicited a withdrawl the 0.9BTC in 27MAY 2017, to my wallet on MERCADOBITCOIN.COM.BR, and the POLONIEX put the status AWAITING APROVAL, but the 0.9BTC was debited on my wallet in POLONIEX instantly, and until now 12JUN nothing was transferred for me. I opened 2 tickets to resolve my problem, but the POLONIEX didn’t nothing to resolve my problem. And I need this BTC, cause are mine, I bought. And the Support Center do not answer my tickets. I don’t know more what I do.
This site is fraudulent
Scams
I HAVE MANY ticket but did not respond
Unfortunately, the team’s incompetence
This is not activity
no no no work in site
Scams
This site is fraudulent
I HAVE MANY ticket but did not respond
Unfortunately, the team’s incompetence
This is not activity
no no no work in site
I am from the Netherlands and i also joined poloniex, because they have many different coins. But i am waiting more then 24hours to get my money back it says awaiting approval but i cant get my coins. The market is going up and down so thats really terrible i am happy that alot people support bitshares (I went all in ) no matter what but if i had digibytes i would lose al my money.
I’am still waiting more than 10 days for 2 withdrawls. Send many tickets but standard response. Really an untrusted company. Those problems i only have with Poliniex. Slow support and don’t pay out. I suggest don’t use POLINIEX!!!!!!
SUEPOLONIEX.today. Support is non-existent for 2 weeks now. I regret using it, bittrex is a lot better.
I’ve been frozen for 15 days. They do not answer the ticket. Holding people’s money is crime join suepoloniex.today
From last night i can’t log in poloniex … maybe scam
This rating is incorrect and misleading. It says they have 24-7 chat. They do not. It says they have email. They do not. It says they have ticket support. They do not. You can make a ticket but they will not respond, sometimes for 30 days. For some people they never respond. Many people have lost access to their funds. It is essentially theft. You can lose a lot of money if you use Poloniex. The market can make a big move while you are waiting 2 months for someone to even answer your ticket. You are crazy if you trust this site.
This rating is incorrect and misleading. It says they have 24-7 chat. They do not. It says they have email. They do not. It says they have ticket support. They do not. You can make a ticket but they will not respond, sometimes for 30 days. For some people they never respond. Many people have lost access to their funds. It is essentially theft. You can lose a lot of money if you use Poloniex. The market can make a big move while you are waiting 2 months for someone to even answer your ticket. You are crazy if you trust this site.
This rating is totally incorrect and misleading. It says they have 24/7 chat. They do not. It says they have email. They do not. It says they have ticket support. They do not. You can make a ticket but they will not respond, sometimes for 30 days. For some people they never respond. Many people have lost access to their funds. It is essentially theft. You can lose a lot of money if you use Poloniex. The market can make a big move while you are waiting 2 months for someone to even answer your ticket. You are crazy if you trust this site.
most likely scam. Not replying to tickets for over 11 days….absolute joke
Does someone know if it is possible to open a corporate account (account for a legal entity) at Poloniex?
Without details your comment is useless
You have to wait 24 hours.
Roshan, would be good to provide some details, otherwise your comment has no value.
Poloniex is a very bad site to steal the customer’s coin. I hope this site is gone as soon as possible.
today I cant make withdrawl and my limit still $0 from yesterday..
it should be back to $2000 for one day on level 1, but it still $0 so I can make transaction to other marketplace.. poloniex is worth today!
scam .. lost my money ….. 🙁
Very poor support, they do not respond, even after 30 days. Cannot get hold of them. My coin is stuck in omplete: Error issue. Star rating for this should be reduced. They do not
deserved 4.5 start. Pls reduce the rating.
Hi Keven, i dont know what you are talking about, withdrawal work fine – maybe you need to get verified?
The site is preparing an exit scam, no one can withdraw any serious amounts of BTC but deposits work 99% of the time with no issues. They are filling their vault and WILL leave with your money, it’s MtGox all over again.
STAY AWAY
This exchange stinks,no support. my ticket has been 32 days now since they emailed
where to send the coins,being processed they claim, but no evidence they are doing
anything,no email to contact them no phone number to check on your claim ticket.they
don’t deserve these stars.
My balances and coins just disappear cause of stop-limit issue, i had submit ticket but no answer for 1 word from support, yeah i think they just took my money, so don’t wasting your time still waiting the answer from their support, useless DO NOT INVEST YOUR MONEY AT POLONIEX!!
I have used Poloniex and have never had an issue. I enjoy the ease of use, the variety of crypto currencies to choose from.
In my opinion I do believe Poloniex to be the best exchange I have used so far.
I have recommended it to friends and famity.
5 stars out of 5 stars.
POLONIEX froze my account. Do not reply to it’s own ticket which opened. It’s over 8 days they have my account frozen and do not reply to support ticket. Never got even 1 reply. It sounds SCAM. They neither reply to my support ticket nor open my account. This is crypto world and your money can go 10-100x down in just 10 minutes but they have left me alone for 8 days in a support ticket which they opened and I haven’t get a reply. Keep your coins in your hands not in these damn SCAMMERS hands.
POLONIEX froze my account. Do not reply to it’s own ticket which opened. It’s over 8 days they have my account frozen and do not reply to support ticket. Never got even 1 reply. It sounds SCAM. They neither reply to my support ticket nor open my account. This is crypto world and your money can go 10-100x down in just 10 minutes but they have left me alone for 8 days in a support ticket which they opened and I haven’t get a reply. Keep your coins in your hands not in these damn SCAMMERS hands.
Having difficulty login in after many tries just simply get locked out. Not a great experience.
Every try when I do get through to reset my password, I receive a long address looking reset with 30 plus numbers and letters. After copying and pasting I still cannot successfully send an email or log in. Please advise
Don’t use this site! My Withdraw from them stuck since 16 of this month! Mods in chat can’t do anything with that! 10 days passed – not a single word from their support in ticket that I submitted. Huge number of people have problems with withdraws and with deposits not showing up.
You can see that in chat and in twitter comments to their last tweet and in recent reviews about them. Also some coins just got disabled for several days – while wallets of that coins was not empty. Can’t exchange/withdraw or fill them – only can see balance.
Horrible company continues to steal money from its customers through false Margin calls , servers down ,withdrawals missing ,deposits missing it’s a complete joke ! They have no customer service and tickets take well let’s just say they never get anywhere . Someone is getting rich stealing others money
Scam they steal your money with no customer service to ask y
Its the worst exchanged I’ve used. The trading features are from 2010, and the technical team appear to be offshore incompetents as the site is down multiple times a day.
Cant withdraw money, it is in pending, support, mods not helping, they basically stole my money. Do not invest, scam!
You kidding me 4.5 stars. I give it 1 since they crash every few days and people lose money
Support center does not work well. They do not any answer your tickets. I have minimum 20 tickets in past week and none of them is responded. I could not get money back. All my withdrawal requests are in “Awaiting Approval” status and they do not give me any explanation.