Poloniex Review: Key Features of the Exchange You Should Know

Founded in 2014, Poloniex is one of the oldest crypto exchanges. The platform, with low trading fees and support for more than 400+ cryptocurrencies, is ideal for all types of traders.

However, the exchange has a mixed reputation for security and compliance. However, this doesn’t make the platform unworthy. Rather, it is one of the best platforms regarding features, fees, and ease of use.

This guide reviews Poloniex, not just on its trading features and fees but also on its safety for users, to give you a clear idea.

The methodology used for reviewing Poloneix

To assess whether Poloniex is a reliable cryptocurrency exchange, we used the following metrics in our review:

1. Reputation: New crypto exchanges take time to build their reputation. Therefore, a well-established exchange scores higher than new exchanges.
2. Available markets: Assessing the number of markets the exchange offers, including the range of offered cryptocurrencies.
3. Security: Security breaches are serious events. If bad actors exploited the exchange, what security measures were implemented to address the exploit?
4. Legal battles: Are there any ongoing legal battles by regulators against the cryptocurrency exchange?
5. Competitiveness: A closer look into the crypto exchange’s fees and their competitiveness against other exchanges.
6. Features: What features does the exchange offer to online traders and investors that may give it an edge against other exchanges?

Poloniex key information

Founded	2014
Cryptocurrencies Supported	600+
Trading Options	Spot, Margin, Future, etc.
Copy Trading	Available
Futures Trading	Available
Payment Processing Partner	Simplex (buy crypto with fiat currencies)

Poloniex pros and cons

Below, you will find the main pros and cons of the cryptocurrency exchange.

Pros

• Many trading options: Poloniex offers users all types of trading options, including spot trading, futures trading, grid trading, margin trading, and more.
• Large cryptocurrency selection: The exchange supports just about all types of cryptocurrencies, including market leaders Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and smaller altcoins that are not yet so popular.
• Low trading fees: Poloniex’s crypto trading fees are among the lowest in the industry. Moreover, the exchange offers a 30% discount on using the native TRON (TRX) to pay for trading fees.
• Large cryptocurrency selection: The exchange supports just about all types of cryptocurrencies, including market leaders Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) and smaller altcoins that are not yet so popular.
• Low trading fees: Poloniex’s crypto trading fees are among the lowest in the industry. Moreover, the exchange offers a 30% discount on using the native TRON (TRX) to pay for trading fees.
• Staking rewards: The exchange allows users to stake their cryptocurrencies and earn rewards on them.

Cons

• History of hacked accounts: Poloniex has been hacked a few times since it started in 2014, resulting in millions of dollars in losses.
• Unavailable in the United States: The exchange was initially open to U.S. customers, but it shut down operations in the country following regulatory issues in 2019.
• Lack of customer support options: Users can only get answers to their questions through an email ticketing system. The exchange doesn’t have a live chat feature.
• Lack of customer support options: No new features were added to the platform compared to other exchanges.

Poloniex trading features

Now that you know the exchange, let’s examine what Poloniex offers crypto traders.

• Spot trading: Poloniex allows spot trading on various cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and more. The platform supports three types of spot trading orders: limit, market, and stop-limit. According to CoinGecko, Poloneix offers more than 700 crypto pairs for spot trading.
• Margin trading: The exchange allows margin trading, i.e. enabling traders to leverage their capital to increase their trading capacity and boost their profits. Traders can also use cross-margin trading, where all positions share assets as a margin.
• Strategy trading: Strategy trading is one feature that distinguishes Poloniex from many other exchanges. The ‘strategy trading’ feature allows users to automate their trading strategies and execute their trade based on set criteria.
• Futures trading: Poloniex’s futures trading feature allows traders to speculate on the future price of cryptocurrencies. Poloniex fees are a 0.01% maker fee and a 0.075% taker fee on futures transactions.
• Grid trading: Poloniex’s grid trading feature allows users to set up a grid of orders at different price points to buy and sell cryptocurrencies automatically. The platform supports both spot and futures grid trading.
• Copy trading: Poloniex allows users to copy the crypto trades of other successful traders. This feature is more useful for beginners as it helps them get started and lowers their risk. To help traders pick the right copying strategy, the platform lists the successful traders by their return, total profit and loss, and AUM (asset under management).
• API: Poloniex’s other distinguishing feature is its powerful API, which allows developers to create their own trading bots and connect them to third-party applications for trading, asset tracking, portfolio management, and more.
• Staking: Crypto staking allows users to put their funds to work while earning rewards. It is basically a process of holding your cryptos in the network’s validation system and participating in its validation and maintenance to earn rewards. Poloniex has no lockup period requirement for staking, and it also allows users to deposit and withdraw their crypto anytime.
• Polo Earn: An earning mechanism opens up more earning options for users and helps them increase their crypto holdings. In other words, Polo Earn offers a suite of cryptocurrency investment products.

Poloniex Fees

Poloniex’s fees are among the lowest in the industry. The exchange uses a tier system to determine trading fees for users, with those in higher tiers getting access to cheaper fees. The trading fees vary based on traders’ 30-day trading volume.

Moreover, users can avail a 30% discount on trading fees if they pay using Poloniex’s native token TRON (TRX).

The standard fee on Poloniex is 0.1450%/0.1550% (Maker/Taker), but it reduces to 0.0805%/0.0875% for those with more than $49 worth of TRX in their account. Such users, however, must pay for their trades with TRX.

Spor and margin trading fee structure on Poloniex

Tier level	30-day trading volume	TRX balance	Maker/Taker fee	TRX Maker/Taker
1	<$50k	<$49	0.1450%/0.1550%	0.1015%/0.1085%
2	<$50K	>$49	0.1150%/0.1250%	0.0805%/0.0875%
3	$50k to 1M	NA	0.1050%/0.1200%	0.0735%/0.0840%
4	$1M to $10M	NA	0.0700%/0.1150%	0.0490%/0.0805%
5	$10M to $50M	NA	0.0500%/0.1100%	0.0350%/0.0770%
6	>$50M	NA	0.0200%/0.1000%	0.0140%/0.0700%

Traders can also get a custom fee schedule, but they need to subscribe to Poloniex Plus Silver or Poloniex Plus Gold, which offer lower fees.

Poloniex’s maker/taker fee for futures trading is 0.010% and 0.075%, respectively. Poloniex also offers cross-margin trading, with interest rates as low as 1% and up to 3x leverage.

Poloniex daily volumes | source

The 24-hour trading volumes for the top cryptocurrencies are millions of dollars. At the time of this writing, the past 24-hour volume across all markets Poloniex offers stands close to $500M.

It won’t be wrong to say that Poloniex has kept its trading fees competitive and low compared to many other crypto exchanges. Poloniex’s low fee structure encourages liquidity on the platform, especially since the exchange supports so many cryptocurrencies.

Payment methods

Poloniex allows users to buy and sell crypto with credit/debit cards. The platform lets users buy over 50 cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH, using Visa and Mastercard credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay.

Poloniex has partnered with Simplex, a payments processing company, to facilitate transactions. Users can buy cryptocurrencies with their debit and credit cards and have their holdings deposited directly into their Poloniex accounts.

As can be expected, users with a Simplex bank account avail themselves of lower transaction fees than those without it. A point to note is that all countries do not support credit and debit card payment through Simplex.

Poloniex Trust and customer service

A crypto exchange gains trust because of its security measures and compliance with regulations. Regarding Poloniex’s security, though the exchange has implemented industry-standard security measures, they don’t seem to be enough.

Poloniex has been hacked three times – 2014, 2020 and 2023. In 2014, hackers stole about 12.3% of the exchange’s Bitcoin. At the time, the exchange compensated users who lost their assets to the hack.

Poloniex lost an estimated $4 million in cryptocurrency when it was hacked again in 2020. The exchange was hacked again in 2023, with an estimated loss of around $114 million. Though the exchange survived the two incidents, its image as a safe exchange has tarnished.

The exchange has tightened its security. For instance, Poloniex has implemented automatic auditing of the entire exchange and raised the security of all servers. The exchange also uses two-factor authentication for account login and withdrawal authorization.

Additionally, the exchange requires email confirmation to make a withdrawal.  The platform also stores the majority of user assets in cold storage.

Compliance is another area where the exchange is struggling. In August 2021, the U.S. SEC charged Poloniex with operating an unregistered digital asset exchange. Poloniex paid about $10 million to settle the charges with the SEC.

Customer service

Poloniex primarily offers customer support through an email ticket system. However, The response time is rather long, as per some user reviews we have read. The exchange also has a help section with answers to commonly asked questions, covering only basic information.

The exchange also boasts an extensive support section covering various topics, from account opening to trading fees and more. Users need to click on the “Contact Support” link at the bottom right corner of the website to access this section.

Customer reviews for the exchange have been mixed. Some have praised Poloniex for its trading features and user-friendly interface, while others have criticized it for issues related to accessing their accounts and withdrawing funds.

Poloniex Review – Final verdict

Poloniex is a good option for users looking for various trading options, including spot, futures, margin, strategy, grid, and copy trading. The exchange is also a better option for traders looking to trade a wide range of cryptocurrencies.

Poloniex’s other pluses include low trading fees, a relatively simple user interface that suits experienced traders and beginners, and a robust API that makes navigating and integrating with other trading tools easy.

However, the exchange’s history of security breaches is discouraging for users. Though Poloniex has adopted a slew of security measures to overcome security issues, traders should use them cautiously and avoid leaving significant amounts of their crypto assets in the crypto exchange for prolonged periods.

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