With a revision to the popular exchange’s terms of use, users from a handful of jurisdictions will have their access to Poloniex shuttered.
According to an October 18, 2018, update, “the websites and the services offered by Poloniex (as defined below) are NOT addressed to persons who have their registered office or place of residence in China, Germany, Pakistan, the U.S. states of New Hampshire, New York or Washington, Vietnam or any other Restricted Territories as defined in Section 37.”
Section 37 goes on to detail that, in addition to the jurisdictions blacklisted, users may not use the Services if they reside in “Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria or any other country to which the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union embargoes goods or imposes similar sanctions.” It also cautions that users are forbidden to use the services if they intend to transact with a person or entity from one of these territories.
Poloniex has cut off user access from residents of New Hampshire, Washington and New York since 2017, but the other restricted territories are a product of the most recent revision.
The impositions took effect immediately for users “signing up for Poloniex on or after October 18, 2018,” the same day as the revision to the terms was posted. For existing users, the new user agreement will take affect a month later on November 18, 2018.
Among these user restrictions, the exchange also notes in the terms of use update that it reserves the right to “refuse to let you open an Account, suspend your Account, consolidate Accounts if you have more than one or terminate your Account or your use of one or more of the Services,” as well as “[reserving] the right to change, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Services at any time and in any jurisdiction, including hours of operation or availability of any feature, without notice and without liability.”
This is not the first time that Poloniex has made substantial revisions to its terms of use. The exchange came under fire from the community for an announced update in August of 2017. Including expanding its restricted states from New York to Washington and New Hampshire, the update warned users it was under no obligation to award users forked coins, a non-guarantee that served as a source of anxiety given a looming Bitcoin Cash hard fork.
More recently, controversy plagued the exchange when news broke that it began freezing unverified accounts, giving its users an ultimatum to verify or have their accounts suspended. Coincidentally, this change came roughly a month out from Circle Internet Ltd., a Goldman Sachs-backed company, acquiring Poloniex in the first major exchange acquisition in the industry’s young history.