Part 1 of a 2 part series explaining the pros and cons of using the crypto exchange Poloniex. Look out for the next part where we discuss the counterpoints.

1. Poloniex has temporarily "lost" people's money

During high usage and DDOS attacks, Poloniex has been known to lose users' money. They can takes days/weeks to respond to tickets, holding funds and transfers and not responding to ticket requests.

Trading for coins routinely goes down during maintenance and audits, and transfers can become frozen for days

2. If you ask questions, you can get your account disabled.

If you push to get your withdraws approved, Poloniex might ban your account. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, I can't blame people for submitting requests. Banning those same people for just wanting answers is frightening.

3. Poloniex is being investigated for insider trading

Cointelegraph just reported that Poloniex and Kraken could be profiting off insider trading. Being unregulated means no one's watching them, and they could be profiting millions off of the backs of their users. Given that they make millions a day in fees, it's a red flag that they might be willing to sacrifice their base for a little more profit.

Ok, they suck. What are some alternatives?

We're looking for mid to high level exchanges that offer a similar set of trading pairs without the crippling issues. 

Bitfinex

• Usually very stable
• Has much fewer trading pairs

Bittrex

• Less popular/known, so often very stable
• The most trading pairs. Name it, they got it

HitBTC:

• Occasional stability problems
• Lots and lots of trading pairs
• Has ICO trading pairs, before the general release. Often expensive, but a way to get in very early if you missed the ICO.

Conclusion:

Our pick is Bittrex because they have the closest offerings to Poloniex. These are all great alternatives so check them  out and select which works for you. I personally haven't had issues with Poloniex (so far), but I diversify to minimize the chances of being affected.

At the end of the day, moving your coins off exchanges is the best way to avoid many of the issues described here, though this doesn't work if you're an active trader. Best luck fellow crytos

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