Poloniex
Announced a $100m protection fund in April 2026 whose coverage, trigger and structure it says will be disclosed later. No fiat rails at all.
- Founded
- 2014
- Registered
- Seychelles
- Site
- poloniex.com
The short answer
Roughly $120m was taken in 2023, full reimbursement was pledged, and no independent confirmation it was ever paid exists. The $100m user protection fund announced in April 2026 has, by Poloniex’s own admission, no published trigger, coverage scope or structure — those are to be disclosed in subsequent announcements. A fund whose rules are unpublished cannot be relied on, and there are no fiat rails at all. We score custody 3 out of 10.
Key facts
| 2023 theft | Roughly $120m, full reimbursement pledged, no independent confirmation it was ever paidas of 14 Jul 2026 |
|---|---|
| April 2026 protection fund | $100m announced, with coverage scope, trigger mechanism and structure to be "disclosed in subsequent announcements". No wallet addresses, no attestation.as of 14 Jul 2026 |
| Proof of reserves | Monthly, Merkle-based, liabilities included, open-source verification tools — and no named auditor anywhere in it. Poloniex builds the tree and checks its own homework.as of 14 Jul 2026 |
| Fiat rails | None at all — 1 out of 10, the lowest in our ratingas of 14 Jul 2026 |
| Custody score | 3 out of 10as of 14 Jul 2026 |
| Effective cost, $10,000 BTC buy (measured by us) | 0.2412%; 0.2539% at $100,000as of 14 Jul 2026 |
| Order-book depth within 0.1% (measured by us) | 33.5 BTCas of 14 Jul 2026 |
| API response latency (measured by us) | 588 msas of 14 Jul 2026 |
A fund whose rules have not been written down
In April 2026 Poloniex announced a $100m user protection fund. By its own admission, the coverage scope, the trigger mechanism and the structure would all be disclosed in subsequent announcements. There are no wallet addresses and no attestation.
A fund you cannot verify is weak. A fund whose rules do not yet exist is not a protection at all — it is a headline number with the entire substance deferred. You cannot know what event would qualify, who decides, or what you would need to show, because none of that has been written. Compare MEXC, which publishes an on-chain address for its fund, or Bitstamp, whose Lloyd’s policy names the perils it covers.
The reason this matters here rather than being an abstract complaint is the 2023 record. Roughly $120m was taken, full reimbursement was pledged, and three years later no independent confirmation exists that it was paid. The company has been in exactly the situation its new fund is supposedly for, and the outcome of that occasion remains unverified.
Its reserve proof is technically reasonable — monthly, Merkle-based, liabilities included, with open-source verification tools — and carries no named auditor anywhere. Poloniex builds the tree and checks its own homework. We score custody 3 out of 10.
No fiat, and middling everything else
Fiat scores 1 out of 10, the lowest mark in our rating, and it means what it says: there are no fiat rails. You arrive with crypto or you do not arrive, which rules the venue out entirely for anyone whose first transaction would be a bank transfer.
Trading cost measured 0.2412% on a $10,000 bitcoin buy and 0.2539% at $100,000 — roughly two and a half times the cheap tier and above Kraken, without Kraken’s custody evidence. Depth measured 33.5 BTC within 0.1% of best ask, and the API answered in 588 ms.
Liquidity scores 7 out of 10 and KYC 8, so the venue functions perfectly well for someone already holding crypto who wants to trade a listing they cannot reach elsewhere.
That is the whole case for it, and it has to be weighed against an unverified $120m reimbursement and a protection fund that has not yet been defined.
Incident record
| Date | Type | Amount | Were users made whole? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Nov 2023 | Hack or exploit | $120,000,000 | Full reimbursement was pledged and no independent confirmation that it was paid exists. Three years on, the pledge remains the only evidence.source |
In our ratings
Compared with
Our coverage of Poloniex
- How to spot a fake proof of reserves27 Sept 2026
- Bitget loses $351.6m — and the fund it says covers it is one we could not verify25 Sept 2026
- Is Kraken safe? The evidence, and what it lacks25 Sept 2026
- What happens to your coins if an exchange goes bankrupt23 Sept 2026
- Is Coinbase safe? What its own filings say19 Sept 2026
- How to move crypto off an exchange, step by step17 Sept 2026
- Token approvals: the permission that drains wallets15 Sept 2026
- What "not your keys, not your coins" leaves out9 Sept 2026
- The seed phrase mistakes that cost people everything7 Sept 2026
- Hardware wallet or software wallet: how to decide5 Sept 2026
Questions people ask
Is Poloniex safe?
Custody scores 3 out of 10. Roughly $120m was taken in 2023 with reimbursement pledged and never independently confirmed, and the $100m protection fund announced in April 2026 has no published trigger, coverage scope or structure by Poloniex’s own admission.
What is the Poloniex $100m protection fund?
An April 2026 announcement whose coverage, trigger mechanism and structure Poloniex says will be disclosed in later announcements. No wallet addresses, no attestation. A fund whose rules have not been written cannot be relied on.
Did Poloniex users get their money back after the 2023 hack?
Full reimbursement was pledged. Three years later no independent confirmation that it was paid exists, which puts it alongside KuCoin, HTX and BingX and against Upbit, the one venue where confirmation exists.
Can you deposit dollars on Poloniex?
No. It scores 1 out of 10 on fiat, the lowest in our rating, because there are no fiat rails at all. You arrive holding crypto or you do not arrive.
What changed
- 27 Sept 2026 — Profile published.