The Poloniex exchange suffered a data leak of unknown size, prompting support to send out password change emails. The messages were initially considered a form of scam, but later were verified as authentic. The Poloniex exchange has warned again for users to set up 2FA:
https://twitter.com/PoloSupport/status/1211715177168678912
The news of the data leak caught the community by surprise, as Poloniex has kept its streak of unfortunate events.
https://twitter.com/Derrick92410178/status/1211921671512317952
Poloniex has not yet issued an official statement on the data leak, its size and exact date. It is also unknown if the leak only affects accounts, or other types of user data.
The news arrived at a time when Poloniex was reinventing itself as an international exchange, focused on featuring TRON (TRX) and its related tokens. The exchange left the US market, and recently opened a new low tier of accounts without requiring verification.
Poloniex has also recently reinvented its fee schedule, to encourage more active trading. The new fee schedule will come into force on January 8, offering discounts for large-scale trading and market makers. TRX holders will also be at an advantage:
“Soon, we will also be introducing fee discounts for customers who hold or use TRX. Once we roll this out, customers who hold TRX in their Poloniex account or use TRX to pay their trading fees will receive a maximum discount of 30% on their maker and taker fees.”
Poloniex has lost its influence, as the past years saw a mass outflow of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) from the exchange’s wallets. One of the reasons was the call for US traders to take out their coins.
The other reason was the end of the altcoin boom, which made Poloniex delist multiple assets. Now, the exchange attempts to leverage its TRX deposits to activate trading. In the past, Poloniex has been a hotspot for BTC, as well as ETH-based speculation.
Traders are urged to also withdraw the recently delisted DigiByte (DGB) coin before January 30, to avoid losing a potentially valuable asset.
