Poloniex Cleaning Closet of Laggard Coins with Some Surprise Choices

Poloniex has scheduled a delisting of six digital assets, with trading set to stop for PotCoin (POT), Einsteinium (EMC2), Bitcoin Dark (BTCD), Bitmark (BTM), GridCoin (GRC), NeosCoin (NEOS), VeriCoin (VRC), and Bitcoin Plus (XBC) as of September 25.

For some coins, the delisting announcement came as a surprise, as in the case of Einsteinium:

https://twitter.com/einsteiniumcoin/status/1042589244441604097

Einsteinium has been an extremely volatile coin, seeing several growth spurts to peak at $2.19 on December 18, 2017. However, it has been trending firmly downwards since then, currently changing hands at $0.06.

The pending removal has also left PotCoin wondering as the asset has been on Poloniex for a long time:

https://twitter.com/PotCoin/status/1042179556709478400

A Reddit thread shows the delisting for Gridcoin was also unexpected, but Poloniex said its decision was based on volumes for the coin being too low.

For Bitcoin Dark, however, the removal is a technicality given that the asset was swapped for Komodo (KMD). However, there has been no talk of actually listing KMD on Poloniex.

From September 25, users will have 30 days to withdraw their funds.

“Once the withdrawal deadline has been reached (October 25th at 12:00 ET), withdrawals will be disabled and the asset will be fully decommissioned. From this point forward, we will be unable to process withdrawals of impacted assets. It is imperative that customers withdraw delisted tokens by the withdrawal deadline,” Poloniex said in a blog post.

The exchange now has a total of 111 pairs after delisting 18 coins in total in 2018 while adding six new ones. The platform has lost some of its influence on crypto trading, ceding ground to Asian rivals. The delistings caused increased price volatility in most of the coins as they are now supported by fewer marketplaces.

In addition to decreasing the number of coins and tokens, Poloniex continues to experience regular technical difficulties, with the latest unspecified issue occurring on September 21.