In the modern world, the number of cryptocurrency exchanges is growing every day and sometimes it is difficult for traders to decide which of the platforms to use for their activities. Poloniex Exchange is one of the cryptocurrency market old-timers. Today we offer to find out what her trump cards are, whether there are pitfalls and how much she surpasses other sites.
- What is the Poloniex Exchange
- How to Trade on Poloniex
- Poloniex Account Security
- Deposit and Withdrawal of Funds from Poloniex
- Trading on Poloniex
- Additional Exchange Features
- Market Position
- Poloniex Reviews
What is the Poloniex Exchange
Poloniex is an American company established in 2014. The main office is in Boston. The founder of the exchange is Tristan Dagosta, whose biography is practically unknown.
Initially, the service was created to carry out trading activities only in the US financial market, but after the exchange became popular, it was decided to expand the geography and make it accessible to users from all over the world.
In 2018, Tristan sold Poloniex to Circle. The deal amounted to $ 400 million. Rumor has it that the sale avoided the Poloniex exchange being prosecuted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for non-compliance. In exchange for Polonix becoming law-abiding and registering its activities under all US laws, the SEC agreed not to take any action for the site’s past operations.
According to the statement of the new owners of the Poloniex exchange, they plan to work towards scaling this business, add new tokens to the listing and integrate support for fiat currencies.
Today, the Poloniex exchange supports 60 cryptocurrencies, including the Tether (USDT) and USD Coin stablecoins and a little less than 100 currency pairs. Site interface is available in English only.
How to Trade on Poloniex
Next, we will talk in more detail about each item and analyze what problems may arise when working with Poloniex.
Register on Poloniex
To start working with the Poloniex exchange, you need to create a personal account. This process will take you no more than 5 minutes.
First you need to open the official Poloniex website and click on the "Sign up" button in the upper left corner or in the middle of the start page.
A registration form will open in front of you, in which you must indicate your name, country, date of birth, active email address and come up with a password. It is also necessary to put a checkmark in the check box and confirm the user agreement and privacy policy. After that press the "Sign up" button.
Within a few seconds, an e-mail will be sent to your mail indicating the link by which you must go to activate the account. If you cannot find the incoming message from Poloniex, check the Spam folder.
With these simple manipulations, the registration process on the Poloniex exchange is completed.
Verification Poloniex
Previously, working with the Poloniex exchange was simple enough to register. Now, in order to carry out trading activities on this site, you must pass verification on the exchange. According to the Poloniex team, this was done to combat fraud on the stock exchange and increase the transparency of the company.
The verification phase continuously follows immediately the registration on the exchange.
After you have activated your account, the system will redirect you to a page with personal data. Filling out the profile is the first step in the verification process.
Here you must indicate your address, including postal code, individual tax number and contact phone number.
It should be noted that the exchange can use your personal data only within the framework of the law, most often it is possible when concluding contracts or in cases where the exchange needs to comply with its legal or regulatory obligations.
After filling in all the necessary data, click the "Submit" button.
The next step in the verification process is to verify your identity. To start identification, click the "Start" button.
You will be asked to select a country and one of the documents that you will use for identification.
Then you need to upload a photo of the selected document. It is important to know that the photo of the document must be color, clear, and also saved in JPG or PNG format.
After downloading the photo of the document, you should also send a selfie with a text note in your hands, on which should be indicated the current date and the inscription "Poloniex".
Further, all data will be sent for verification. Usually this process takes several minutes, but may take several days. Upon completion of verification on Poloniex, you will be sent a letter to the email specified during registration, you can also see the status of verification on your profile page.
It should be noted that after passing the verification, you are assigned a standard user level and a maximum daily withdrawal limit of $ 25,000.
You can also become a user of the gold level and increase your daily withdrawal limit to $ 100,000. To get a gold profile level, you need to send a request to the Poloniex team.
The highest account level is platinum, with a withdrawal limit of more than $ 100,000 per day. To achieve it, you must definitely enable two-factor authentication and provide Skype contacts. After that, the Poloniex exchange team will contact you to conduct a personal conversation to make sure the accuracy of your data and the security of your account. After the conversation, the Poloniex team decides to change the account level.
Platinum accounts gain access to using the white list of addresses, which is an additional security measure and ensures that funds leaving Poloniex are sent to pre-authorized wallets
Please note that whitelisting is required for transactions in excess of $ 200,000.
Poloniex Account Security
Approaching the issue of security, it is impossible not to note that at the beginning of its activity, the Poloniex exchange was subjected to a hacker attack, as a result of which 97 BTC was stolen from user accounts in total. Then the Polonix administration decided to reimburse all user losses from a "personal pocket." I would like to believe that such a negative experience at the very beginning of the project made the Poloniex team pay due attention to the reliability and safety of user funds.
Let's see what security measures the exchange offers us today.
Naturally, one of the most popular ways to secure your account is to enable two-factor authentication (2FA).
Because Poloniex exchange does not use SMS verification, in order to activate 2FA, the first thing is to install one of the applications on your mobile device or desktop:
- Google Authenticator for iOS
- Google Authenticator for Android
- Microsoft Authenticator for Windows Phone
- Authy for Desktop
After installing the additional application, go to the settings menu - click on the tool icon, which is located in the upper left corner and then select "Two-factor authentication".
You will see the 2FA activation window. You must first add your Poloniex account to the authenticator application, To do this, you can use the QR code or the 16-digit code, which is presented on the page on the left. Save your backup and QR code, put them in a safe place. If your phone is lost or stolen, you must use the backup code to return to your Poloniex account.
After that, a one-time password will be generated in the application for your Poloniex account. Return to the 2FA page on the Poloniex website and enter the received code in the "Code" field of the same name.
Check the box that confirms that you have saved the backup code and the QR code, then click the "Enable 2FA" button.
Activating Two-Factor Authentication
If you did everything correctly, the system will give a notification that that 2FA is connected and now every time you log in to your account, in addition to the username and password, you will also need to specify the 2FA code from the authenticator application.
It is also possible to set IP access restrictions to increase the security of your account. This means creating a list of secure IP addresses from which you can enter the exchange. If there is an attempt to enter the account from another address, it will be blocked.
And, of course, do not forget about the simplest conditions, which are also aimed at ensuring the reliability of the account and directly depend on you:
- The use of a unique password to your account, as well as its non-disclosure;
- Work only with the official Poloniex website or through the installed mobile application;
- Using exclusively official communication channels with technical support for the site. Technical Support Page: https://poloniex.com/support.
Deposit and Withdrawal of Funds from Poloniex
Well, are you ready to entrust your funds to the Poloniex exchange? Then we suggest you to understand in more detail how to do it.
Balance Replenishment
In order to transfer funds to your exchange wallet, you need to go to the menu "Balances" → "Deposits & Withdrawals".
Next, a window opens with a list of cryptocurrencies, select the necessary one and click on the "Deposit" button opposite it.
The system will generate a unique wallet number (public key), which must be used to make a deposit. In addition, you can use the system QR-code.
It should be noted that replenishment with some cryptocurrencies has individual requirements, for example, a minimum deposit. If such conditions exist, the system will notify you of this by issuing an appropriate message indicating the smallest amount that can be deposited into the account.
It may take some time to complete the transaction, depending on the network load, this usually takes no more than 4 hours.
As for the replenishment commission, the Poloniex exchange does not charge you any fee, but maybe an affiliate service (the site of the electronic wallet from which payment will be made, cryptocurrency exchangers) will require some kind of% or a fixed amount for the transfer of funds.
Withdraw Funds
How to withdraw money from Poloniex? Everything is very simple. The process of withdrawing funds from the Poloniex exchange account is similar to the process of replenishing your wallet.
Go to the menu “Balances” → “Deposits & Withdrawals” and click on the “Withdraw” button opposite the currency you are interested in. A window will open in front of you, in which you need to specify the address of the recipient and the number of coins to be withdrawn.
It takes time to complete the transaction, from a few minutes to 24 hours. For security reasons, withdrawals sometimes require certain confirmations, namely direct review and approval by members of the Poloniex operating team. This is necessary in some cases, depending on how secure your account is.
Then a link will be sent to your email to confirm the transaction. Clients with two-factor authentication do not confirm the withdrawal of funds by e-mail.
Trading on Poloniex
Trading functionality on the Poloniex exchange includes many different tools. So, for example, this service provides the ability to use three types of financial transactions - Exchange, Margin training and Landing.
Let's dwell on each of them in more detail.
Purchase and Sale of Cryptocurrency
To carry out standard exchange activities, you must select the Exchange section in the upper right corner.
To select the required currency pair, use the Market tool. From the top, select the base cryptocurrency, and from the opened list - the quoted one.
Also on the same page is a graph of the changes in the selected currency pair.
Below the graph, you can see three of the application form to create purchase orders, sales, and stop-limit order.
In order to buy or sell cryptocurrency on Poloniex, use the Buy or Sell application forms, respectively. Indicate the required amount of currency, as well as the purchase / sale price. Then the system will automatically calculate your total transaction amount. Pay attention to the commission, the size of which is indicated in the line "Fee". To confirm the transaction, click the "Buy" or "Sell" button, depending on the type of transaction.
As for the stop-limit order, its use will help you to some extent protect profits and minimize losses. Such an order is executed in a certain price range, for example, you want to buy cryptocurrency when the market price reaches 150, but you do not want to pay more than 155.
Then you need to specify the cost in the “Stop” field - 150, and “Limit” - 155. As soon as the market value reaches 150, the order will be executed at the best of the offered prices.
Let's look at what happens next with your application using the example of a purchase order. After the application is placed, Polonix will look for a counterparty, ready to sell the desired cryptocurrency at the price you need. If the exchange does not find a sales order that contains the corresponding value, then the order will be placed in the order book (block "Open order") until a suitable sales order appears.
As soon as your order is executed, it will automatically be displayed in the history of transactions (block "Trade history").
The platform’s functionality also includes orders (“Sell orders” and “Buy orders” blocks) and a graph of sales and purchases (“Market Depth” block).
As for the commissions for transactions on the Poloniex exchange, their size depends on the volume of your trades in 30 days. The larger the volume, the lower the commission for your next transaction.
Commissions apply to both Maker and Taker. Makers are charged less because they provide liquidity by creating an offer of orders in the market. Takers pay larger commissions because they spend liquidity taking orders.
You can also trade on Poloniex using a bot. More about this, see the video below:
Margin Trading on Poloniex
Margin trading in cryptocurrency implies trading in borrowed funds.
In order to carry out such transactions, it is necessary to transfer funds from your main account to margin. Click on the "Balances" button in the upper right corner and select the "Transfer balances" menu.
Then a window will open in front of you where you will need to confirm the user agreement and after that you will be taken to the transfer funds menu. You need to select the cryptocurrency you want to transfer, indicate the amount of the transaction, check if the purses from which and to which the transfer will be carried out are indicated correctly and click the "Transfer" button.
After replenishing the margin account, you can do trading. To do this, select the "Margin trading" section in the upper left corner.
The interface of the Margin trading section is identical to the interface of the Exchange section. You will see the same graphs of changes in the currency and sales and purchases, depth of markets, etc. The only thing is that you will add two new blocks: "Margin account" and "Positions".
Let's try to figure out the positions. When you take borrowed funds and make a deal, the position opens as a result. There are long and short positions. When selling currency, a long position is opened, when buying – a short position.
Your open positions can be seen in the "Positions" block, which contains the following information:
- Coin – the name of the cryptocurrency to which the open position is indicated;
- Position – long or short;
- Amount – The amount of currency you bought or sold. With a short position, this value will be negative;
- P / L – unrealized gain or loss that you would have incurred when closing a position;
- Liq. price – the estimated maximum or minimum order value at which a forced liquidation will occur.
In the "Margin account" block, you can see the following information:
- Total Margin Value - total margin value;
- Unrealized P / L - unrealized profit / loss;
- Unrealized Lending Fees - the estimated amount of% that you can get on open loans;
- Net Value - your net profit;
- Total Borrowed Value - the total value of your loans.
Buying and selling currency occurs in the same way as in the Exchange section.
The commission for obtaining borrowed funds is 15% of the profit on the loan and is paid after closing the position.
Lending
In fact, to profit from activities on the Poloniex exchange, it is not necessary to trade cryptocurrency. You can provide your coins in credit to other users.
To do this, transfer your funds to the Poloniex credit account. You can do this in the "Transfer balances" menu in the same way as described earlier in the section on margin trading.
After replenishing your credit wallet with Poloniex, go to the "Lending" section in the upper right corner.
A simple interface will open before you, on the right is a block about the status of user wallets, including credit. Here you need to choose the currency that you want to offer as a loan. It is important to note that you can only provide funds on credit that are in your credit account (the extreme column).
After choosing a cryptocurrency, fill out the information about your offer in the "Offer" block. You must specify the daily% rate, the number of coins and the maximum number of days during which the funds will be held in credit. A check in the "Auto-renew" check box means that your funds will be automatically offered at the same rate after closing the loan. After filling in all the fields, click the "Offer loan" button.
All open lending offers can be seen in the “Loan offers” block, indicating% rates so that you can determine the optimal rate for your offer.
The “Loan demands” block indicates the demand for loans in a particular currency.
While no one has accepted your offer, it will be displayed in the "My open loan offers" block. After one of the traders has used your funds, information about this will be displayed in the "My active loans" block.
For lending services, Poloniex exchange charges a fee of 15% of your earnings. Profit from loans paid to your credit account.
Additional Exchange Features
In addition to the above options, Poloniex also offers its users:
Mobile app
This is one of Circle's innovations for Poloniex. The application is designed for Android and iOS devices. It greatly facilitates the work of traders who are used to solving all their issues on the move. The mobile application has the ability to select a language.
Institutional Investor Accounts
Another new product that appeared on the exchange after its sale Circle. Institutional clients, in addition to trading activities on the Polonix exchange, are provided with several additional services. They can trade on the OTC Circle Trade platform, as well as a special support department has been created for them, which provides support for clients both at the registration stage and during exchange activities.
Market Position
For a long time, Poloniex kept in the TOP of various ratings, but today it only gets the 80th place according to the version of the CoinMarketCap portal. The daily trading volume of Poloniex exceeds $ 37 million.
There is a version that the loss of positions in the rating is caused by the fact that the Poloniex exchange, as before, shows the true results of its activities, while other exchanges began to trick and overestimate trading volumes to artificially raise their positions in the ratings. But, frankly, it is hard to believe that Poloniex remained the only honest exchange on the market. It can be assumed that the problems are due to a change of power, and soon we will see Poloniex again among the leaders.
The most popular cryptocurrencies on Poloniex are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero, Litecoin. Moreover, most often traders use trading pairs with Bitcoin: BTC / USDT (29.26%); BTC / USDC (17.47%); ETH / BTC (7.45%).
Poloniex Reviews
Despite the wide functionality that Poloniex offers us, the exchange has definitely lost ground. First of all, all the blame for the growing competition. Most likely, the Poloniex team at one time underestimated their competitors and could not stay on the podium.
A "headshot" was the introduction of mandatory verification for all traders in 2018. When the Polonix exchange began to freeze all unverified accounts without warning, in order to expedite the verification of users, traders did not appreciate such a coercion and poured their negativity into hundreds of angry comments.
Far from flawless verification process throw oil on that bonfire which further embittered Poloniex customers. Although the administration of the service writes that this process takes several minutes, be prepared that you will wait for an answer for several days, or even longer.
In confirmation of this, a lot of comments can be found on the network that the process of user verification is unreasonably delayed.
Also, users very often note problems with the withdrawal of funds on the exchange. Due to this, accusations of fraud are often addressed to Poloniex.
Among other things, many complaints are poured from clients of the exchange towards the work of the support service. Of course, having any problems related to finances, each user expects an operational response from the exchange and maximum involvement in solving his problem. But apparently the customer orientation also is not Poloniex strong suit.
Also, the site notice periodic hangs, due to which it is necessary to re-log in again, and this significantly affects the efficiency of the site.
In a series of negativity, positive reviews about the stock exchange sometimes slip. But, unfortunately, they are negligible.
I would like to believe that Circle will help the Poloniex exchange regain its former popularity, reliability and improve the technical characteristics of the service.
