What is Poloniex?
Poloniex is an extensive cryptocurrency exchange offering their users and traders more than 200 crypto assets to buy and trade. Poloniex was established in 2014, and it was founded by Tristan D’Agosta. Since its creation, the exchange has been actively adding new cryptocurrencies according to the demand and potential.
Poloniex is open to a wide part of the world, and users from different countries can easily access their services. The availability of different languages available on the website makes it even easier for users from different nations to understand and proceed with the features they want.
My Overall Thoughts on Poloniex
Poloniex is a user-friendly platform without many complicated features and options to start with. It has a variety of assets to offer, along with different trading options. If I had to recommend it on the basis of just three aspects, they would be as follows:
1) Wide range of cryptocurrencies: Having more than 200+ crypto assets simply gives a user diversity to trade and invest. You get many options and projects to explore and see where you want to invest your money. In the end, you simply don’t feel restricted by having only a few crypto assets to buy or trade.
2) Trading options: There are several trading options available at Poloniex that users can choose with. There is futures trading available (which you can access leverage for), margin trading, and of course spot trading to start their journey.
3) Customer support: Poloniex offers educational articles, guides, and FAQs to solve their users’ problems. On top of that, there is a live chat option available with multilingual support to make things even better for the users.
The major criticism of Poloniex is that US residents cannot access this exchange. Not to worry if you live in the USA, you can read our article on the best crypto exchanges in the US.
Key Features & Advantages of Poloniex
Poloniex is unquestionably a great cryptocurrency exchange with countless crypto assets available for trading and investing. But the thing is, there are some other benefits too that the exchange offers to their users. You can take a brief look at them if you are planning to start trading on Poloniex. This will give you some insight on what to expect from the platform.
Negatives & Disadvantages of Poloniex
Poloniex is a great crypto exchange, but it is not perfect or flawless. There are a few things that might compromise the experience of traders and investors when they choose to go with this platform. Let's take a look at what these are below:
What Services does Poloniex offer?
If you are a little skeptical about whether you should sign up with Poloniex or not, you might want to investigate the features and services a little more thoroughly. You can take a detailed look below and see what services Poloniex offers and if they are worth trying for you.
Over 200+ cryptocurrencies listed: This is one of the actual selling points of Poloniex that attracts more traders and investors. Unlike some other crypto exchanges, Poloniex has a wide variety of assets available on their platform that can easily be traded, bought, or sold. Poloniex offers almost all of the most popular coins with the largest market caps; traders and investors will be comfortable investing in these familiar cryptocurrencies.
If you are looking forward to newer projects and altcoins, they are available too and can be accessed through the available markets or the quick buy option. Make sure to do your proper research and evaluation before investing in any new project, or you might end up losing all you invested.
Easy crypto purchases and sales: One of the biggest and most important features a crypto exchange can offer to their users is the easy sale and purchase of crypto assets. Poloniex offers a whole separate section to their users where they can easily buy different cryptocurrencies and sell them too.
The best thing is, Poloniex supports different fiat currencies through Credit/Debit cards and bank transfers which make it relatively easier for the users to purchase or sell their assets. But due to the inclusion of third-party merchants, you will have to see if your local currency is supported by them or not.
Also, do remember that not all of the cryptocurrencies are available for quick buy and sell. You can only access the most popular ones and later on trade them if you want any other asset.
Spot and margin trading available: This is where Poloniex fulfils the requirements of most traders, whether they are experienced or amateurs. With the availability of spot and margin trading markets, traders get diverse options to go with any market as per their preferences. Of course, more markets can be added to the platform, but for most users, the available markets are more than enough.
If you want instant trading benefits, you can go with spot trading, or else, there is margin trading available to give more exposure to your trades or capital.
Mobile apps for iOS and Android devices: There might be no one in the current era that could spend a day without using their phone. Smartphones have literally offered the world so many features and options that you now don’t even have to open your laptop or access your desktop to perform most tasks. But if we specifically talk about crypto trading and investing, this has also been revolutionised through mobile phones. It does not matter whether you want to get your hands on specific crypto assets or you want to open a trade; you can do it without any problems on your phone.
Poloniex offers their trading apps to both Android and iOS users. You can search Poloniex on your phone’s app store, and the application will pop up for you to download, install and use.
Beginner-friendly platform: Cryptocurrencies have gotten a massive amount of exposure since the recent spikes and ATH (All-time-High) of BTC. That is one of the few reasons why many people have entered the crypto industry with almost no prior knowledge. To offer them a suitable and hassle-free experience, a platform needs to have a great user interface, layout, and feature integration.
In the case of Poloniex, the platform is quite simple and easy to start with. Users just have to create an account to access the features. There might be some personal verification needed in order to buy or trade crypto assets. As for the layout, every option is available in the top bar of the website. It is up to you to go with any option you want and start trading or investing right away. In case you want to check your account details, you can check out the top right corner of the platform to access all your details.
Cryptocurrency lending to earn interest: With Poloniex, users can lend their own assets to other users on the platform and earn interest over the agreed period. In other words, your assets will be making money for you, but make sure to set the interest rate at a level that would be able to attract borrowers. You can create multiple lending offers in your account with different amounts and different interest rates.
Now it will depend on other users if they opt for your offers or not. Rather than keeping the interest rate unrealistically high, keep it about average to attract more borrowers.
Professional trading charts with features: Poloniex might not have the greatest diversity within the markets, but they do offer professional trading charts along with features that are useful for traders. One thing to note here is that Poloniex exchange is relatively fast when showing charts and movements. As for the features, you can use different indicators, check the charts’ depth, timestamps, candle types, visual orders, scaling, and a few more options to improve trading.
Futures trading available with different leverage levels: Futures trading has also been provided by Poloniex, so traders have more options. Several leverage levels are available; you can go as high as 100x, although we do not recommend this unless you are an experienced trader. It is up to you to choose the amount of leverage you want, and to go short or long as per your calculations. Traders also get a similar futures trading chart as spot and margin trading. You can again customize the chart as per your preferences and likings.
Leader boards, promotions and awards: Poloniex has dozens of campaigns and promotions going on for their users that could benefit them in some way. The platform also offers a broad referral program where they can earn a specific amount for each of their referral. Anyone can simply visit their explore section and see which campaign they can join and earn some extra bucks.
Multilingual support team: Not every trader or investor is from an English-speaking country, and not everyone can speak English fluently. To solve this problem, Poloniex offers multilingual support to their users so that their problems and questions can be answered efficiently. There is even a live chat option to assist you within minutes without waiting days for emails to be answered.
What I don't like about Poloniex
Below are a few points about Poloniex that can detract from the experience for existing and new users. You can take a look at them and see if these will affect you personally or not.
No quick swap option: While Poloniex does offer more than 200 cryptocurrencies to their users to trade and invest their money in, not all of them are available through the quick buy option. Only a few coins are available in this manner. For many crypto exchanges, a quick swap feature is available, which means you can swap any coin you like for any other coin, in just a couple of clicks. This is also not available on Poloniex.
Restrictions on Fiat or Credit/Debit deposits and withdrawals: If you are happy that Poloniex supports the sale and purchase of crypto through bank transfers and credit/debit cards, also know that there are restrictions that you might not like. First of all, the number of supported countries from which users can buy cryptocurrencies through these methods is relatively low.
This automatically reduces the number of fiat currencies supported on the platform. As the cherry on top, Poloniex is affiliated with a third-party merchant to process all types of transactions related to fiat.
High deposit and withdrawal fee: Again, due to the platform’s affiliation with a third-party merchant, the deposit fee and withdrawal fee becomes higher than normal. You might have to reconsider if you really want to get your fiat currency out of the platform or leave it due to the high costs of withdrawing.
Not supported in the USA: US users may already be accustomed to seeing crypto exchanges excluding them due to tight laws and regulations. The same scenario occurs with Poloniex, as the platform does not allow US users to perform any type of activity on the platform.
Poloniex Fees
Poloniex Deposit Fees
Crypto deposits on Poloniex are absolutely free. Users simply have to transfer the funds into their wallet on Poloniex, and their account will be topped up with the coin that was sent.
When it comes to fiat deposits, including bank transfers and card payments, Poloniex charges only 0.75% of the whole transaction. However, Simplex, the affiliated payment gateway, processes all the fiat transactions on the platform. Simplex charges a flat fee of 3.5% of the whole amount, or $10 if the 3.5% fee is lower than $10. The total cost will be 0.75% + 3.5% (minimum $10).
Poloniex Trading Fee
The trading fee at Poloniex is quite reasonable, it is not too high, but it's also not the lowest. The maker fee at Poloniex starts at 0.145%, whereas the platform charges 0.155% for the takers. The best thing is traders can lower their fees by increasing their traded volume in the past 30 days or holding a small amount of TRX token in their accounts.
You can take a look below to get an idea of how much you can reduce your trading fees.
Traders can also access 0% maker fees by becoming silver or golden members of the platform. For that, they would have to apply manually and see if they qualify.
Poloniex Fiat Withdrawal Fees
Poloniex charges 0.5%, and Simplex (the third-party payment platform) charges an additional 0.5% when withdrawing funds to your bank account. In short, users have to pay 1% of their total amount as a fee in order to get their transaction processed.
Poloniex Crypto Withdrawal Fees
Poloniex does not have a fixed fee for all their crypto assets available on the platform. Each asset comes with its own fee, depending on the market position. It is better to check the fee right at the time of withdrawal to get a precise idea of how much you have to pay.
Pros and Cons of Poloniex
- Over 200+ cryptocurrencies supported
- Professional trading charts
- Crypto lending available
- Beginner-friendly interface
- Multilingual customer support
- High fiat deposit and withdrawal fees
- Not availabe for USA residents
Verdict
Poloniex is a beginner-friendly crypto exchange offering 200+ cryptocurrencies to users from all over the world. There are many positives of the exchange, such as plenty of trading options, crypto lending, advanced charts, and multilingual support.
Unfortunately, if you live in the USA, you won't be able to use Poloniex. There are plenty of other options for US residents, and you can find them here, in our article on the best crypto exchanges in the USA. If you scroll down you will also see some main facts about them in the table.
Comparison Table of the Best Crypto Exchanges in the USA
Cryptocurrency is offered by eToro USA LLC (“the MSB”) (NMLS: 1769299) and is not FDIC or SIPC insured. Investing involves risk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, Poloniex is a legitimate and trusted cryptocurrency exchange. We note that Poloniex was once hacked in 2014, compromising the funds of many users. However, since then, it has been one of the safest platforms to go with, and there have been no more reports of breaches or compromises of the platform.
Poloniex withdrawals usually only take about 4 hours to process, but this can be affected by market conditions, request volume, and other circumstances. The platform also encourages users to wait at least 12 hours before opening a ticket.
Unfortunately, US users are not allowed to open accounts on Poloniex or perform any type of financial activity there. If you are from the US, you can have a look at these top crypto exchanges that you will be able to use with no restriction.
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