Poloniex Review – Is It Safe to Buy and Sell Crypto?

Poloniex exchange has been in the cryptocurrency trading industry for a long time, even longer than most top crypto exchanges. This could be the reason behind its claim as “the legendary crypto-asset exchange.”

A lot of traders may question the exchange’s security protocols following its hack in 2014. However, the exchange has prioritized reclaiming its place among the best exchanges globally by providing its users the safest and easiest trading experience.

You’ll find out more about this “legendary” crypto exchange and what it has to offer in this Poloniex exchange review. Maybe, you’re just right about the exchange or wrong about it, and you can get started in a few seconds. Continue reading to find out.

At a Quick Glance

Key Findings

Poloniex is both a centralized and decentralized exchange. It has protocols in place to keep you wanting to remain on the platform.

As a larger body, organization, or firm, you can check out Poloniex’s Institutional investment plans and leverage the exchange’s offers to increase profitability on your crypto investments.

Although there are educational tools in place, Poloniex may be suitable for advanced traders who understand how the crypto market works and fee structure regarding maker and taker fees.

What is Poloniex?

Although there are no Poloniex US customers, Poloniex is a cryptocurrency exchange that was launched in 2014 in the US. Its headquarter is in Wilmington, Delaware, US. In a bid to serve the world crypto market, the company was purchased by Circle in 2018 and expanded its office to Bermuda.

With over 100 cryptocurrencies traded on the platform, Poloniex offers futures and margin trading to a global crypto market. You’ll understand its features and offerings in detail in the following section.

Range of Offering

In addition to the wide range of altcoins offered in the exchange, Poloniex offers many products and features. Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of them all:

Margin, Futures, and Spots Trading

Poloniex allows you to trade contracts at leverages up to 100x of your initial capital. There are over 25 crypto-asset pairs open for margin trading, and you can capitalize on this to trade at high leverages provided you’ve carefully analyzed the market.

Poloniex futures comprise over 15 USDT collateralized perpetual contracts, including BTC, ETH, BCH, ADA, and more. 

Over 200 spot trading pairs are available, with BTC, ETH, and USDT pairs, topping the charts. You can create order books and execute instant buy or sell orders on your preferred trading option.

Buy Crypto (Fiat GateWay)

Poloniex Buy Crypto allows for easy buying of cryptocurrencies using debit or credit cards. There are two primary ways to buy crypto on Poloniex exchange:

• Fiat gateway: In this method, you can buy crypto using fiat-to-crypto service providers such as Mecuryo, Simplex, ApplePay, and others. Standard service and exchange fees may apply charged by the money service platform. 

While some service platforms may charge fees for their services, others may not. So endeavor to check out the respective price quotes and terms of service of these platforms before you proceed to make transactions.

• Bank transfer: The bank transfer method allows users to deposit fiat using bank accounts. Usually, the platform accepts bank transfers from USD and GBP-based banks.

Poloniex Earn

Poloniex offers incentives and programs that boost profitability for investors. Here’s a breakdown of the earn program:

• WINk Games: Poloniex partners with the Tron to host games in which you can play, participate in staking protocols, and as a developer, build intuitive dApps. 

As a Tron-based offering, you earn in the blockchain’s governance token, WINKLink. The protocol is compatible with other blockchains, meaning you get the flexibility to participate from other blockchains such as ETH, Binance Chain, etc.

• Poloniex Campaigns: Poloniex campaign comprises many bonus offerings and giveaways. The campaigns are periodic, and you can find them on your leaderboard, so always be on the lookout for subsequent incentives like these in the future.

Poloniex Staking

You’ve probably heard of staking, a protocol offered by most centralized and decentralized exchanges and platforms in which you assign your funds to be used to validate crypto transactions.

Yes, Poloniex offers just that. Interestingly, staking on Poloniex is flexible as there are no lock-up periods, and you can withdraw or spend your rewards whenever you wish. 

There are four staking options on Poloniex. While you may pay a staking fee on some, others are free. Here is a highlight on the four primary staking options on Poloniex:

• Tron Staking: Launched on Poloniex in December 2019, TRX staking is a protocol that allows you to earn appreciable TRX rewards when you hold TRX, a Tron token.

There are no Poloniex fees attached to the TRX staking, and you can withdraw rewards anytime you want. The minimum amount to hold is 100 TRX, and earnings are in APY, based on how much TRX you hold through the staking process.

• Cosmos Staking: You qualify to participate in the Cosmos Staking by holding ATOM, a Cosmos token. The minimum amount to hold is 1 ATOM, and withdrawal can be anytime. 

However, You are charged a staking fee of 25% on the Cosmos validator node and Poloniex for operational costs of the staking protocol.

• BTT Staking: Alternatively, BitTorrent staking is a staking protocol available to Poloniex users in which you earn BTT token rewards when you hold the BTT token. It is flexible, too, just like the subsequent staking protocols, and withdrawal can be anytime. 

However, you can choose to hold tokens for the stipulated period and earn bi-weekly rewards. The minimum amount to hold is 1000 BTT.

• WINk Staking: is another Tron-backed staking protocol. When you hold the WIN token, you qualify to participate and earn rewards.

It is free and flexible too. Rewards are bi-weekly, but you can withdraw whenever you want. And the minimum amount you can stake is 5,000 WIN.

There are other earning programs on Poloniex Earn and Staking, such as airdrops and listing rewards on LaunchBase. However, you can get started with these and maximize profits on your investment.

Poloniex Wallet

The Poloniex wallet is not a traditional standalone digital wallet, rather an in-built hot wallet that allows you to hold, swap, and spend crypto assets on the Poloniex exchange. 

With Poloniex wallet, you can deposit, withdraw, buy, and sell crypto assets with fiat. You can transfer your balances to external wallets using an address.

The wallet is a prepaid wallet that works just like the regular standalone digital wallet. However, holding your coins in a hard/physical wallet would be the best practice for security reasons.

Poloni DEX

Poloni DEX is Poloniex’s decentralized exchange. It is Tron and USDT based, meaning that you can trade as much crypto or altcoin against TRX or USDT, although TRX is more predominant than USDT.

There are no trading fees on Poloni DEX, and you can trade unlimitedly. Additionally, you can personalize your trading options. Here’s how to do this:

• Sign up to Poloniex, then navigate to Poloni DEX.
• Next, go to “Token Listing,” you can find it on the menu at the top of the landing page. Then select your preferred token against the TRX or USDT pair, and start trading. It’s a straightforward process.

JustSwap

Poloniex partners with DeFi service, JustSwap, to provide an exchange and liquidity pool for DeFi loan protocol. You must connect an active digital wallet – web or mobile – before you can get started. Its features include: 

• Swap: With Swap, you can interconvert between cross-chain tokens easily. That is, exchange TRC20 tokens with BEP20 or ERC20 tokens easily. 

There are also cross-chain tokens available such as Wrapped BTC (WBTC), ETH (WETH), etc., available, which you can get in exchange for your crypto assets.

• LP Pool: The liquidity pool is a yield farming protocol that allows you to lock-in crypto as loans. You choose a liquidity pair you prefer and earn interests in a yield aggregated and auto-compounded APY periodically.

LP Pool also allows you to participate in DeFi mining protocols and earn higher returns.

• Sun Swap: Sun Swap is an initiative to project the Sun Tron-based project in the crypto-DeFi community. You can reinvest the SUNOLD tokens into JustSwap DeFi mining and staking protocols and earn higher returns.
• JustSwap Scan: You can use JS Scan to monitor and track your DeFi activities on the DeFi exchange. By pasting your wallet address in the box provided, you can select your preferred pair and trade cryptocurrencies on the exchange.

P2P Lending and Borrowing

You can borrow loans on over 10 cryptocurrencies on Poloniex. The annual rate for the loans is around 0.03 – 0.07% which you pay periodically, usually in 2-3 days intervals. You have to provide collateral before you get the loan.

Commission and Fee Structure

Unless you are on any of the 3 membership levels: Silver, Gold, and Poloniex Exclusive Market Maker, Poloniex fees apply to all your transactions.

Poloniex trading fees are quite high and spread from 0.00% – 0.15% for makers and between 0.04% – 0.2% for takers. 

TRX transactions have different trading fee rates for makers and takers; 0.0% – 0.1% for makers and 0.02% – 0.11% for takers.

Poloniex Exclusive Market Makers comprise institutional liquidity providers who may have an entirely different rate as maker fees. However, if you wish to apply as one, you can fill out the Google Docs form available on the platform.

Ease of Account Opening

The ease of opening an account with Poloniex exchange is okay. There are no difficulties attached. However, getting verified during KYC may be an issue for some users.

By visiting Poloniex, entering your email address, creating a password, accepting Poloniex’s terms of service and age policy, solving the puzzle, and tapping “Sign Up,” you will create your Poloniex account.

After creating your account, the next step is to verify your email and begin trading on the platform. KYC is needed when you want to withdraw, deposit, or trade at higher volumes.

KYC Verification

Poloniex encourages its users to run KYC verification. You can undergo the KYC verification process immediately after signing up or later. 

There are 2 levels of verification on Poloniex. The Level 1 verification applies when you create an account using your email and password. You only have 10x leverage on margin trading and can withdraw $10,000 a day.

However, for the Level 2 verification, you must provide more information about yourself. Here, must enter details such as:

• Country of Origin
• Legal Name
• Date of Birth
• Home Address
• Postal Address
• And Phone Number

Afterward, you must provide documents that comply with the information you entered in the form, such as your government-issued ID card, passport, or residential documents. 

Next is to wait until you’re sent a confirmation on KYC. Benefits enjoyed include:

• Increase leverage, up to 100x
• Increased withdrawal limit up to $25,000
• Margin trading activated
• Plus all the features enjoyed in the Level 1 verification.

Deposit and Withdrawal

Deposits and withdrawals on Poloniex are straightforward. Remember, you must have a level 2 verification to increase your deposit and withdrawal limits. Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of the entire process. 

How to Deposit on Poloniex

There are two ways to do this:

• Sending crypto from an external wallet to your Poloniex wallet: Do not send ERC-20 tokens or crypto from a DeFi application that runs a smart contract.
• Buying crypto directly from a fiat gateway service such as Simplex: The minimum to buy using this service is $50. Toggle to “Wallet” then to “Buy with Fiat,” and follow the guide to purchase crypto to your exchange account.

After depositing on your exchange account, you may proceed to transfer your funds to your margin or lending accounts. Deposit fees apply to every transaction.

How to Withdraw on Poloniex

Withdrawing on Poloniex is straightforward too, it is the same process as depositing. Go to your wallet, then toggle to “Withdraw.” You can transfer your crypto assets to your external wallet or sell them for fiat. Withdrawal fees apply to every transaction.

Platform User Interface and Trading Experience

Poloniex’s UI is excellent. There is a mobile-compatible web application that gives you the feeling of when you use the mobile application. You can get a more automated UI through Poloniex’s API system.

It is also easier to customize your display option by switching between light and dark modes. Also, you can personalize your notification preferences too.

Apart from the outrageous Poloniex fees, the trading experience on platform is generally okay. The exchange adopts TradingView’s brilliant charting system to create a responsive chart that allows you to analyze and monitor the crypto market in real-time.

You can customize, personalize, and save your chart settings. Also, there are available tools and indicators at your disposal. You can enhance your technical analysis with the pop-up Poloniex Trollbox feature.

The Trollbox has tons of feedback from fellow or advanced crypto traders taking one position or the other. You can capitalize on the information they provide and do more research to enhance trading and profitability.

Mobile Application

Poloniex has a mobile web app and a handy mobile app. The mobile web app follows the url format: m.poloniex.com and gives you the experience of the handy mobile app, which you can download from Google Playstore or Apple App store.

The mobile application is great both on the web and as a standalone. You can create order books, take on positions, and monitor charts. 

However, the magnification and display size of your mobile device could enhance your mobile experience. The bigger your phone, the more interesting Poloniex’s mobile app becomes, and vice versa.

Supported Cryptocurrency

Poloniex supports high-volume cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, USDT, LTC, etc. Plus, over 50 altcoins and tokens. Tron is one of the most appreciated cryptocurrencies on Poloniex because of the partnership the platform has with Tron.

It occasionally lists new tokens in its platform and, in the process, offers airdrops to users. Poloniex also occasionally delists tokens that fail to meet up with regulatory standards and its terms and conditions. So ensure to always check the platform to see listed and delisted tokens.

Educational Tools

Asides from the Poloniex community feature, Trollbox, the exchange has a blog section (Medium), Newsletter, and a tutorial-like FAQ section that teaches you how the crypto market operates, including how to enhance your trading experience on Poloniex.

Customer Support

Although Poloniex has customer support options, it is, however, not a promising one. The platform does not have direct customer support live chat, or team contact. Instead, it resorts to its social media channels and FAQs to offer you support for your queries.

However, Poloniex’s social media channels are a good way to reach out to their customer support team, but this may not be convenient for some traders.

Poloniex has a long history in the trading industry and understands what problems an average trader may encounter at every point in time. It does not justify the poor Poloniex support unit, but it tells much that you can get the kind of feedback you need to solve your problems on the platform.

Regulation and Security

Poloniex is not regulated. However, under the canopy of its parent company, Circle, the exchange plans to outrun this through a special-purpose merger with Concord Acquisition Group, which will see Circle go public and offer more protection for Poloniex.

Since Poloniex’s hack in 2014, the company has adopted strong security protocols to keep security in check every time. Additionally, its acquisition by Circle, a fintech company and service provider, provides the exchange with the security tools and resources to keep investors’ funds safe.

Is Poloniex Safe?

Yes. Poloniex is safe for trading, buying, and selling cryptocurrencies and futures contracts.

Conclusion

Poloniex is truly legendary from all indications in this Poloniex review. Its trading protocol may not favor some traders due to its fee structure and lack of proper customer support tools. 

However, the platform is an all-in-one solution for everything you may be looking out for in an exchange.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)