Poloniex Exchange Review: Is Poloniex Safe to Use?…

Poloniex Review

Poloniex is a cryptocurrency exchange based in San Francisco. Thanks to its ability to double up as a digital currency exchange and a platform for trading on margin (rarely seen in the cryptocurrency market), Poloniex has quickly earned a reputation as one of the world’s leading digital currency exchanges.

In spite of its growing popularity, people still wonder, “Is Poloniex safe?” From a financial security perspective, funds that investors/traders put in Poloniex are only used to facilitate trades on their account.

Poloniex Pros and Cons

As with any cryptocurrency exchange, Poloniex has merits and demerits. And, human nature being what it is, one bad experience (even if it was because the user was not aware of the procedures) can send a user into “vent mode” and result in very skewed Poloniex exchange reviews.

The Poloniex pros and cons list below shoots from the hip in order to give an unbiased view of the exchange.

Pros

• Supports over 90 popular digital currencies. This is arguably the highest number in the industry.
• World’s largest Ethereum exchange by average volume in 2017.
• Provides extremely detailed charts and efficient data-analysis tools.
• Offers a high-volume margin trading and lending service for major crypto assets.
• Its services are accessible from anywhere on the globe.
• Charges low deposit and withdrawal fees compared to other exchanges.
• Stop-limit orders to reduce risk.
  

  Cons

• Website loads slowly, compared to other cryptocurrency exchange sites.
• Customer service leaves a lot to be desired.
• Private key management is centralized, exposing funds to custodial risks.
• No advanced order types.
• Does not accept fiat currency.
• Was hacked in 2014. However, the exchange fully refunded the affected users.
• Requires users to create accounts and verify their identity for high-volume activity.

Poloniex Overview: How Poloniex Exchange Works

Since Poloniex is a Web-based application, anyone with a Web browser can use it after opening an account with the exchange. Opening an account is pretty straightforward and intuitive; the Web site prompts the user at each step.

The step-by-step guide below on how to buy on Poloniex gives a good idea of how Poloniex works.

What Payment Methods Does Poloniex Support?

One can only deposit to Poloniex online, using cryptocurrencies. Since Poloniex does not accept fiat currency, the usual methods of payment like cash, bank transfer, Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), Interac Online, and wire transfer are all nixed. For users who want to know how to deposit USD to Poloniex, the best way is to buy Bitcoin with U.S. dollars and then deposit that Bitcoin on Poloniex.

How to Buy on Poloniex: Step-by-Step Guide

The trading platform is extremely neat, user-friendly, and stable. The deposit and withdrawal procedure is intuitive and straightforward.

To start, go to http://Poloniex.com and click “Create an Account.”

Once you finish creating your account, you can log in and go to the “My Profile” section, where, on the left side, you will have to fill in the necessary details to complete the verification. The verification procedure is time-consuming, taking anywhere between a few hours and a whole day.

How to Buy With Fiat Currencies

Poloniex does not accept fiat currency. You’ll have to first convert your fiat currency into Bitcoin, Ether, or Litecoin and then store them in your cryptocurrency wallet. Next, you will use your stored funds to buy on Poloniex.

How to Buy with Bitcoin

To buy with Bitcoin, one needs to have a balance of Bitcoin on the Poloniex exchange, which is why people often ask how to deposit Bitcoin in Poloniex or how to deposit money into Poloniex. While the latter cannot be done, to do the former, go to the “Deposits and Withdrawals” page in your Poloniex account

On the “Deposits and Withdrawals” page, you can check the history of logins, orders, transactions, deposits, and withdrawals from the user dashboard.

Poloniex currently only accepts bitcoins and other major altcoins for deposits and withdrawals.

Deposit your bitcoins or other altcoins from your wallet. To do this, click on “Balances” and, in the drop-down menu, click on “Withdrawal/Deposits.” If you’re planning to deposit Bitcoin, find the Bitcoin symbol and click on the “Deposit” button in that row.

An address will pop up in a box on the screen. Copy this address, go to your cryptocurrency wallet where your Bitcoin is stored, and paste this address into the required box in the wallet for withdrawing bitcoins.

Check the “History” section of the “Balances” tab to see whether your transaction was completed.

Once the funds are transferred from your wallet to the exchange, you are ready for trading.

To trade, click on the “Exchange” tab. The page will have a graph of any altcoin. Don’t bother about that right now. To the right of the chart there is a list of cryptocurrencies. Search for the cryptocurrency you want to exchange for your Bitcoin. Click on the symbol for that cryptocurrency. The chart on the left will change to the chart of your chosen cryptocurrency.

Below the chart, you’ll find the latest price of the cryptocurrency. You can buy at this rate or you can bid for a lower price. Whenever the price you select is agreed upon, the transaction will take place. You can always cancel the bid any time before the transaction is complete.

List of Countries Supported by Poloniex

The list of Poloniex-supported countries is too long (over 230 countries) to be detailed here, but, to get a basic Poloniex overview, think of it as an exchange that is supported across the globe.

For the full list of Poloniex countries supported, please visit Poloniex.com.

List of Cryptocurrencies That You Can Trade on Poloniex

If one goes by the trading volume and user base, Poloniex is arguably one of the greatest cryptocurrency exchanges of all time. It displays a diverse set of functions and services. The site provides quality liquidity for more than 100 cryptocurrencies, including the important ones like Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Ripple, Dash, Lumen, and IOTA.

Poloniex Exchange Rates 

The exchange rate for Poloniex differs from currency to currency. The Poloniex exchange fees vary from zero to 0.25%, depending on volume. The fee also changes between maker and taker.

The chart below gives you an idea of the fees, depending on the volume.

Is Poloniex Safe to Use?

As is common with all centralized exchanges, Poloniex keeps control of all private keys to the online wallets holding the users’ cryptocurrencies. However, most of the funds are in secure offline “cold storage.” The exchange offers browser recognition tools and two-factor authentication for account holders.

In 2014, the exchange was hacked and almost 12% of all customer Bitcoin deposits were stolen. The exchange immediately announced that all the funds would be reimbursed.

Given that Poloniex is a centralized platform, it is advisable to keep only the funds you need to lend, trade, or exchange at any given time. The rest of your currency should ideally be stored in offline wallets.

Poloniex Issues

Many Poloniex users have experienced problems while withdrawing funds. The most common of the Poloniex issues is that users have to “await approval” for long periods, even though their accounts seem to be in good standing.
As for new accounts, people find it difficult to withdraw amounts over $2,000 per day.

To make the Poloniex withdrawal problems worse, a user with an unprocessed withdrawal might have to wait for long periods even to get customer support. (Source: “Poloniex Review: Read this before using Poloniex,” CoinCentral, August 12, 2017. )

Poloniex vs. Kraken vs. Coinbase

With its withdrawal problems and fears about its safety (thanks to the 2014 hacking), Poloniex is often compared to the other popular exchanges.

The table below gives a quick Poloniex vs. Kraken vs. Coinbase comparison.

(Source: “Poloniex vs. Kraken Comparison,” Coin Central, September 20, 2017.)

As there have been quite a few reports of Poloniex refusing fund withdrawals for users, I strongly recommend that you compare the above three exchanges and pick one that works best for your individual needs.

Poloniex Exchange Rating: