Wheat from the chaff
For a while now the two main 'altcoin' Exchanges have been @poloniex and @bittrex. I've been around long enough to see the rise and fall of altcoin exchanges like Cryptsy, Mintpal and more recently Bter.
I had thought over the last few years we had gone some way to separating the "wheat from the chaff" with (at the beginning of 2017) Poloniex and Bittrex emerging as trusted Exchanges. However with the explosion in growth of the cryptocurrency userbase; both Poloniex and Bittrex are struggling to make the transition from small businesses to medium sized enterprises.
Same shit, different exchange
First to start to show cracks was Poloniex. From 'Temporarily disabling' deposits and withdrawals on numerous coins for weeks on end with no explanation. To the site going down with complete radio silence. Poloniex fell below Bittrex in the pecking order of trusted Exchanges in my eyes.
However of late it is Bittrex that is beginning to even more alarming strain. And unfortunately I've found some of my own funds caught up in the Bittrex blender.
Not public enough...
Despite being a Bittrex user for a number of years, a few weeks back I was getting prompted to verify my account whenever I logged in. However I was able to ignore the prompt and use my account as normal. I only use Bittrex to trade and don’t hold significant funds on the exchange for prolonged periods of time. I usually deposit funds, make my trade, then withdraw.
However a few weeks back, I deposited some funds, made my trade, only to find I couldn't withdraw them. Bittrex wanted some basic verification.
I provided the information they requested (name, date-of-birth, address) only to greeted with this message:
We could not match your information to our public record providers. To complete the verification process, you must apply for an enhanced account.
In practice this meant overnight I went from being a user that could withdraw up to 100 BTC per day to a user that could withdraw nothing, including the funds I had recently deposited.
Biting the bullet...
As much as I loathe giving out my details to these Exchanges, I decided to verifiy my account. The "enhanced verification" involved sending a selfie with some kind of government documentation. So I did that only to receive the following:
Name Mismatch... We failed to automatically process your documents due to your name from your basic application not matching what is found on your documents.
So I raised a ticket, explaining the minor name discrepancy. Yet three weeks and two chases later, not a word for Bittrex. All this time, my deposited funds being stuck on the Exchange.
Mom and pop Exchange
There is really no point in me ranting about the lack of communication, support services or professionalism of crypto Exchange services in 2017. In reality they operate closer to a bedroom businesses than multinational corporations. Basic concepts like replying to emails or investing in recruiting and training up support staff seem lost on the Bittrex hierarchy.
All I can say is if you’re using Bittrex, be cautious.
Especially if you have yet to verify your account. You run the risk of your money getting caught in their ‘blender’ and it potentially taking months to get it out.
I’d say that the fact that Bittrex is accepting deposits yet refusing withdrawals from some accounts should be a red flag for anyone using the Exchange. It has the hallmarks of an Exchange with liquidity problems. However only time will tell whether this is the case.
Want Crypto? Pick your poison
I’ll keep you posted on the progress of my Bittrex ticket and how long it takes to resolve. However if you want a flavour for the prevalence of the problems on the Exchange do a twitter search on #BittrexTrouble.
I used to recommend new people use Bittrex and Poloniex to buy some of the lesser known cryptocurrencies. I stopped recommending Poloniex a few months, even though they appear to have got their act together recently.
I can however no longer recommend Bittrex.
I’d advise people to consider shopping around and consider using services such as Shapeshift or Blocktrades. However it is a trade off. You’ll likely pay a mark-up using these services so keep an eye on the price actual you’re paying for your trade.
Unfortunately it's a case of picking your poison at the moment.
If Poloniex and Bittrex are working for you, then you could be better off using them. However be prepared for your funds to get locked up at a moments notice... that may be a price not worth paying for a good exchange rate.
Professional Players needed
To my mind the 'altcoin' Exchange market is ripe for disruption and I'm sure someone will eventually fill the void with a service that a multi-billion dollar sector warrants. 'Bitcoin' Exchanges, like Coinbase and Bitstamp, though not perfect by any means operate to a higher degree of professionalism. The 'altcoin' market will only grow in the medium term and the outfits running the Exchanges seem ill-suited to making the transition to keep up.
It would be great to see decentralised exchanges, like Bitshares take a foothold in cryptocurrency. However at the moment the liquidity and traction simply isn’t there on any of these exchanges.
We are very much the wild west days in cryptocurrency. The moment your coins leave your possession, even for the length of time it takes to send to an Exchange, trade and send them back; consider them lost. You need to be comfortable with the possibility that (at any moment) you may struggle to get your coins back or worse may not see them again. It is ironic that the most robust protocols invented to store our value (e.g. the blockchain) are currently supported by some of the most ropey and insecure services.
But we are where we are.
Honestly I’m using it now and many people have told me that it should be a temporary thing and not a long time . There is so much shady things going on these sites as well as Poloniex. I contacted customer service to change my email on Bittrex since aol is going out of business and I still don’t have a reply . I’m going to have to take my funds out before they are all gone
I prefer using coinbase
As in how they are treating you is Bullshit. Wow that sucks, I have had no problems with Bittrex, but I am damn sure going to be careful if I decided to deposit and significant amount there. The ease of being able to move crypto around makes us quickly forget the dangers of the unregulated exchanges as well. That sucks... sorry to hear that.
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@pawsdog/12-3-2017-the-market-view-and-trading-outlook
@pawsdog
I hope it is temporary however some people have been waiting months for news on their verification. And there is very little communication about what the issue(s) are.
Coinbase, I haven't used in a while. I know some people that have had issues recently but not to the extent on the smaller Exchanges. I think Coinbase is solid however doesn't trade some of the lesser known coins, so forced to go via Bittrex/ Poloniex at times.
In my opinion it’s better for short term investments once cleared with verification
I have 15k US in bitshares. Will double it every week that there are no issues.
I just signed up to Bittrex and it took 3-4days to get verified as they rejected by IDs. The uploads identification were coming up with same error info specified above by the author.
However, when I contacted the support via the form, i got an autoresponder mail specifying what could be the issue. I got livid and mailed them my ID to upload it themselves. After a few hours i got an email of a verified account.
Really wasn't an enjoyable user experience.
It will be less enjoyable when they report every sale (not buy - they never report the buy) you make. Then the IRS will be on your butt.
To what email do you have sent the ID? I have contacted them in so many ways and do not answer yet ...
Love for DEX #bitshares
give me a 32 bit linux client for it.
I'm running it on a 64 bit Fedora box
that is very messed up to attack my post on selfies that people can express art and fun on, what is the deal? that is totally wrong....I have no control over who follows me or uses things I do...I do hope you do the right thing and remove the flag because if you look at my blog I don't even know you, you should realllllly look in the mirror and leave a woman like me alone,
Give me a 32 bit bitshares client
I too have a linux micro box, stuck in 32 bit. I do all my BitShares trading on my other machines.
How ot works
What is the main purpose of btu can you please.let me know i really worl hard to make a good post i need to learn how to get help.from u also
I ran into the exact same thing, a few weeks ago, and went through the same set of verification procedures... somewhat against my better judgment. No, they couldn't "verify me in public records," probably for the very reason that I have spent a lot of time keeping a really low profile...
I really DO hope decentralized exchanges gain some traction, but I guess it's quite a challenge to build consensus when people have such a wide range of perspectives on how money should be handled. In a sense, maybe that's one of the true "acid tests" of decentralized structures...
Hard to say whether they are intentionally trying to screw people over or just struggling to keep up with overwhelming demand. Like you say, time will tell
The demand is a part of the problem, but there seems to be some strange activities going on with USDT
Now that I read this I'm glad I took everything out of Bittrex and not dealing with them anymore now. In my case, the first alarm bells started ringing when I moved my Neo from their exchange and somehow 0.3 Neo seemed to end up in their pockets even after I paid the fees...never a reply as to why that happened...They seem to think it's normal to keep everything after the comma. I had a similar experience as yours, with Blockchain. I was able to buy BTC with my debit card, but when I wanted to move it to an exchange, they refused and I had to verify my account. I'm not sure why this is all happening right now, but it seems to be going on with lots of exchanges and wallets now. Thank you @nanzo-scoop
I think that's real shady, allowing people to be 'verified' enough to deposit their funds but not verified enough to withdraw them! It's tantamount to stealing in my eyes.
This is just horrible, and I don't understand yet why Basic verification is not enough, as in the case of this post, or in my case, which I have seen I need a few days ago, in order to withdraw my money from Bittrex. Why is this needed and why should I send them a photo of my face and also my id? I feel controled and this is not the purpose of blockchain. It is not the control of population the thing to be achieved by this technology, but freedom and free market!
Agreed @nanzo-scoop...It seems to be happening with more than one exchange, Bittrex now, Blockchain and even spectrocoin. The last two are both dealing with Coinify, so I'd say it's them that are doing this. But with Bittrex I don't know. But I think Bittrex taking 0.2 Neo, when I already paid the fees, is theft too...I opened a ticket with them and never heard back.
I was an enhanced user, was trading there for a many months after leaving Polo with all its glitches. I loved Bittrex. Right when btc was peaking I sent some alts into my account to sell for bitcoin and cash out. I noticed they had lowered my withdrawal amount and made me a basic member again for some reason. I resubmitted my credentials and was blocked shortly after becoming enhanced user again. I know shit happens and for whatever reason they needed to do that but then when I started researching I learned there is over a two month backlog for gettin unlocked. In fact, I have found not ONE single person that has said they have been unlocked. I keep looking. Please let me know if you have been. I am a week in and very mad. The trade I was trying to make would have been my only cash out and now the coins are locked up and they have plummeted in price. I lost a lot of money and am now scrambling to figure out what to do. There is a youtube video where a guy says he has had the same experience and he has 30 btc on bittrex. Over two months. No response. Nothing. I try not to keep coins on trading sites but this is outrageous. I am a us citizen as is the guy with the 30 btc locked up. Many, many users can be found commenting on bittrex's twitter posts. Over 2000 on the most recent tweet there. Go see for yourself. #bittrexproblems
ive verified with docs literally in less than minute (after uploading them)
Just experienced the same thing with bittrex today. After almost two months of trading, wanted to withdraw today and got caught up in the verification hassle. Now my money is stuck with no means of getting it out. This is really really crazy stuff from bittrex. And to think we weren't informed before time
Thanks so much for the heads up. With the markets as they are, I am feeling the need to diversify and that means finding exchanges and ways to trade. So, this is timely and useful information for me.
Diversification is definitely a good idea. Just be careful on those Exchanges and be prepared for the worst should it happen.
I am sorry to ear about your recent experience with the exchange. I too have found myselfin a similar situation when trying to pull out when in a high profit zone. I feel like many of these exchanges do things like this to keep coins on their serversorprevent maximum profit from usrs as they would lose money on the dips.
Appreciate your sharing this experience. You must have a steel lock on your emotions. This would eat me alive. So I go still with tangibles. Always waiting for someone to say "totally safe, totally secure". It doesn't seem to be happening. Everything is good till it's not. Thank you for being open and sharing.
I personally deal with it by recognising it's part of the game. We accept the exponential gains, dealing with sub-optimal Exchanges is part of the dance.
Thanks for sharing your recent Bittrex experience and thoughts on the topic in general. Scary to think your funds can get frozen on the exchange due to some small technicality.
I once opened a ticket with Bittrex because I thought I had accidentally duplicated my request to withdraw funds from my bank account. I never heard back from them, but only one transaction came through... so I’m not really sure if the ticket did anything.
Good luck with with your crazy Bittrex situation and definitely keep us posted!
Thanks I will do. The lack of communication shows me that they really aren't geared up to deal with demand. Reading twitter I can see that people have been waiting two to three months with no response on their tickets. Bittrex is struggling on the customer service front (or doesn't care).
Considering Bittrex has a financial incentive to stay relevant as the crypto market grows, I would hope that it is simply growing pains and not a sense of apathy. That being said, a 2-3 month response time is absolutely unacceptable. You would think they could afford to hire a few more tech reps to keep up with the demand.
Damn, sorry to hear that man. I verified a while back without issue. Had to do the enhance tho as I got that first same message. I keep only a small amount of crypto on there now for active trades. Put everything else on a wallet.
I keep the vast majority of my crypto in my wallets also. However with way cryptocurrency has been going recently, even relatively small amounts are not insignificant in the real world.
My biggest beef is that they allowed deposits (and still allow deposits) on accounts where they've frozen withdrawals. That's shady practices in my opinion.
I had the same message and managed to trade ok last night. Prob lock me out next time, thanks for the heads up will proceed with caution. Bitfinex have reports of problems too.
I myself have not traded on Bittrex but I tried creating an account. Immediatly while creating my account I had to verify the same way you had to do. That stopped me there already because I don't have any crypto on Bittrex for me it was easy to stop. I can imagine for you it wasn't that easy. I find it difficult now to find a decent exchange. Hope there is one which is solid.
I agree with you, we need a new decentralized exchange of crypto-currencies and this is a fact ...
I have $100 funds in bittrex facing problem as yours and can'tbe withdrawn also, its been 2 weeks and I don't know if it will be resolve!
However, shapeshift has high btc transaction fee and blocktrades suck for 0.002 bitcoin transaction fee also! I hate them both!
My SBD deposit today in Poloniex just went lost Sir @nanzo-scoop
How about yours?
Yep still waiting...
Thank you Sir @nanzo-scoop
Should I open a ticket or wait just for it?
Thiss just makes me sad.
I am so sorry to hear, I found myself in a pretty similar situation for few days when I wanted to withdraw my funds and I was propted that it is necessary to verify my account in order to take my money back. Now, since basic verification failed because they don't have enough recording providers to validate my data, I am supposed to apply for enhanced verification. And right now I think if it's worth that my few funds to recover with the price of my face and my documents to be disclosed to Bittrex, or should I just give up on them. I can say that it is really frustrating that I am allowed to deposit my funds to them without verification, but in order to retrieve them I need to be verified...
This sounds scary. What do you think about waves and bitshares decentralized Exchange?
Decentralised exchanges are good however they don't have enough liquidity at the moment anf the spreads tend to be too wide.
I had the same problem, couldn't withdraw and also couldn't complete basic verification so today I decided to complete the enhanced one. Verification was completed within 10-15 minutes to my surprise so I could withdraw again without any problem.
I don't know if Bittrex can be trusted anymore, it might be time to look for something else.
Best of luck to everyone!
Thank you so much for the warning. Only a month into Cryptocurrency and the volatility of the exchanges has me wondering if it's worth it sometimes. Although yesterdays $iota run has me second guessing that concern after all. Appreciate the candor and will look at safer ways to trade! Drove me batty I couldn't move stuff when I wanted.
there are new DEX platform coming soon- I invested and waiting to see if NVO exchange bears fruit-but for now maybe Binance which i have found to be quit good
I'll look into Binance
Was ready to use Bittrex but fortunately, I stumbled upon this article. Thanks for sharing this, I think I need to do more research before getting into this.
I don't trust centralized exchange. When the big event like mt gox happens people will start to use decentralized exchange like bitshares.
i made the mistake of creating an account and transferring some of my BTG into bittrex prior to having my account verified. now my money is stuck and i am unable to complete their [draconian] verification process. it's been 2 weeks and no one has responded to my support ticket. i guess live & learn. i have also seen so many other exchanges doing similar things back in the day, i should've been more careful...
I used to use redemption at @blocktrades
they are very fair
I think blocktrades is a good service, however the mark-up vs the current exchange rate is too high for me.
I stopped using Bittrex when they limited my withdrawls to something like $100 a day. I knew soon it'd be a full stop, and I made sure to withdraw anything I had. I'm using Cryptopia right now. They do have "verification" unfortunately, but unverified accounts can withdraw up to $5,000. I'm happy with that, but I also don't keep money on exchanges. I only use it for a quick buy or sale. So, if they do limit me in the future I'll just go some place else.
It's a pity that Steеm and Sod are traded only on Polonix and Bitrix!
This fucked me over too. You should be able to take out 0.025 BTC a day if you made your account before August I think it was. This stipulation is hidden away in the support pages and not advertised on the "verify your account page" that is directs you too when you log in.
Hope this helps anyone else who has been affected by this .
Nope I cannot withdraw anything. Made my account years ago.
I just tried to find the support page that says it but it seems to have been altered. I withdrew 0.015 or so a few days ago, so I know it was working then. I really hoped they haven't changed things because I need to withdraw some more tomorrow to get dog food. I'm afraid to fucking try now.
Just letting you know that I just successfully made a wiithdrawal from bittrex, so I am not too sure what's going on there. When I was first asked to verify I sent them a ticket demanding that they do not make demands of me.. Perhaps that helped? I don't know for sure. But, it is worth a shot. It's your BTC after all, not theirs. I debunked their reasons for wanting my identity in the message, so if you do the same perhaps they will lift the ban.
excellent post dear friend @ nano-scoop of much interez and actuality
The same thing happened to me, update the account that is very simple, ID, invoice to check your address and a selfie and linsto photograph, a few steps and you have your account verified and you can move a lot of money per day
I wish you a beautiful week
I've no doubt that people who pass the automated process have a smooth experience.
However for those that don't, it takes way too long to get the query resolved (or to even hear back) and in the meantime they lock up funds. Not a great sign, hence the warning.
I register to bittrex with mail. Went to verification info, same thing happen to me, but only difference is that my account was banned next day hahaha. I send question to Bittrex support over month ago and still don't have answer, so I give up on them.
Thank you for the information you provided, hopefully helping people who have not used bittrex yet. as it says, if it happened like the thing you experienced, it is very difficult to contact them, I have experienced it, but my problem about steem transfer error to bittrex, 1 month I wait, but there is no definitive explanation about my Steem very difficult to talk to.
Thank you @nanzo-scoop have a nice day.
I have only used Coinbase to this point. No trouble but the limits are so low its hard to buy much.
Thanks for the info. I just logged in and was presented with the same message. I hope you get your crypto out. I saw I had 16 cents on there. They can keep it.
there is no use of these exchanges at this moment both are playing in their own style it's better to trade quickly and move funds immediately who knows when they will disable
Thanks so much for the post I have been using Bittrex for a while luckily only real small amounts. Good to know to proceed with caution.
I had noticed another problem with Bittrex. There is a very good chance that they have software executing a "front running" scam. So you place an order to sell, and almost instantly, there's an order lower than yours. This can be normal market movement, however, if it happens ALL the time, it could possibly be front running which causes you to drop your price to get your asset sold. aka Execute your trade.
I thought it a minor annoyance until an experienced trader I know mentioned it as potential front running. Just FWIW.
It's quite easy to run a bot that places an order to front run other orders. It doesn't need to be an inside job. Anyone with a Bittrex account can do it by adding and removing orders using API calls and making them relative to other orders.
Even with my rudimentary python knowledge I managed to get a bot running on Poloniex a couple of years back. I can see how these can be annoying for those placing orders manually.
AH. I see. Oh jeepers.
I might as well kill myself now. It's just not in my nature to act like that, so no wonder I'm always losing. Have fun with your savage selves, humanity!
I don't think purchasing coins/ trading needs to be that complicated for most people. Just decide the price you want to buy/ sell at and place your order accordingly. Sure people may front run occasionally however it shouldn't make much of a difference if you're not day trading or running a bot.
I am using bitshares and it is working out great and I think that decentralized exchanges are the future!
Bitshares is great.But not many coins there.I don't see future there if they don't list all popular coins.
I just withdrew all that I had out of there since they wouldn't let me withdraw a little at a time. They make no mention of minimum withdrawal amounts on their site yet they kept telling me that my withdrawal was too low, even though it more than covered the transaction fee. As a minnow I need to be able to withdraw 0.00001 BTC!
Right now I'm going to use Blocktrade to send my SBD to Uphold as BTC. I don't know if this is a great idea or not, but I like them so far.
Almost forgot to mention, nearly every time I log on I have to check my email because it says I'm logging on from a new ip address. This annoyance is another reason why I decided to drop them.
Bitshares and others cant grow fast enough. Im terrified of Bitfinex and now you give worrying concerns over Bittrex. Coinbase doesnt have what I want so...
TenX is aiming to make exchanges unnecesary as well. Convert fiat into and cash cryoto instantly.
Solution - decentralized exchanges.
BarterDex is coming
Or Bitshares
Yes, Bitshares isn't as decentralized or nearly as far along as the Komodo Platform. I down own both.
It makes no sense, they take money with no prob...
When its time to take it out, no go...
Just don't keep your coins in the exchange. As soon as the buy goes through send the coins to your own wallet that you hold the private keys for.
Fuck Bittrex.
thx for the warning..
I had a blocked account after full verification two, three months ago. It was loud on social portals. Replay?