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One of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, Poloniex has begun to make good on its promise to refund lost cryptocurrencies to affected margin lending investors. Earlier this week, the exchange published a blog post where it announced that investors who were affected by an unfortunate flash crash back in May would get their lost assets back.
The Backdrop
The entire scenario started back in May. Poloniex runs a peer to peer margin trading service, where several lenders send their Bitcoin to a pool, so those interested in Bitcoin trading but who don’t have sufficient funds can trade with them. Ideally, a lender is paid some extra cash on his capital for bankrolling a trade, while the borrower gets an adequate stack of assets to trade with and make some money as well.
However, on May 26, Poloniex saw an unprecedented anomaly. Clams (CLAM), one of the assets available in its margin trading pool, saw a crash that saw its value erode by about 80 percent in less than an hour. Thanks to the velocity of the CLAM market crash, Poloniex’s automated liquidation system malfunctioned, and lenders lost margin loans estimated to be 1,800 BTC ($13.5 million at the time).
Also, a press release published by the exchange revealed that the crash had affected 0.4 percent of all its users base, and all existing BTC loans in the pool were reduced by 16.202 percent.
In the release, Poloniex blamed the crash on the high rate of sell orders and the low liquidity in CLAM margin trading. To help remedy the situation, Poloniex froze the accounts of all defaulting borrowers, adding that it would keep them frozen until they repay their outstanding loans. The exchange also promised that all funds would be returned to affected users as soon as it can recover the lost assets.
In response to the flash crash, the exchange also discontinued support on its margin trading service for BitShares (BTS), Factom (FCT), MaidSafeCoin (MAID), and yes, CLAM
Steady Progress
The exchange has made good on its promise to refund affected investors. Back in June, they confirmed in a blog post that they had gotten up to 180 BTC in recovered loans, and that the refunds had been effected. Now, it seems they have made further progress with repaying the loans. In yesterday’s press release, Poloniex stated that as from an unspecified date this month, all impacted lenders would be credited their trading fees until they have been completely made whole.
The blog post added, “Every time you pay a trading fee, we will convert the fee to BTC and then credit you those fees each day. Your first credit will include all the trading fees you have paid since June 6, 2019. (You will see a repayment tracker in your account soon.) “
While Poloniex didn’t specify us tow much of the lost funds it has discovered this tie, the fact that it is taking steps to make amends is a great step forward.
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