An Open Letter from Tristan D'Agosta

Dear Poloniex Community,

I wanted to take a moment to address some of the feedback we have received with regards to the recent changes at Poloniex. There are a fair number of rumors circulating around on social media, and I'd like to try and separate fact from fiction.

We are a Money Services Business (MSB). Accordingly, we are bound by the rules and regulations defined by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and regardless of how other businesses operate, we are legally obligated to follow the rules of FinCEN to the best of our ability.

Starting on May 21, 2015, we will require your name and country for all withdrawals. To withdraw more than $2,000.00 USD equivalent within 24 hours, we will require your address and phone number. It is only if you need to withdraw more than $7,000.00 USD equivalent in a 24-hour period that we will require identity verification such as your social security number or photo ID. We are taking these measures to protect ourselves and you from potential criminal activity that could force a shutdown of our services.

To be clear, any and all profile information we collect from you is collected in order to be compliant and to discourage people from using Poloniex unlawfully. None of the recent changes are to share or sell your data for marketing or advertisement purposes.

While we are saddened by customers who have threatened to cease using Poloniex as a result of these changes, we have chosen the unpopular path of following the regulations that apply to us because we believe it is the right thing to do. We are grateful to our loyal customers who will continue to use Poloniex as we grow and innovate.

It is unfortunate that the changes to our withdrawal policies have overshadowed the incredible work the Poloniex team has done to bring Margin Trading to the altcoin community. Nevertheless, we are encouraged by the amount of Margin Trading activity we have seen in such a short period of time, and are excited to be a part of this new era of alt trading.

Tristan D'Agosta

Founder of Poloniex