Well, being delisted always leaves a bit of a sting... anyway, this is a bit of a PSA in case anyone missed it, Poloniex is delisting STEEM. No reasons are given... so it could be due to lack of liquidity or regulatory defensive measures... you never really know with these delistings, and as STEEM hardly qualfies as an ICO exit scam or abandonware, well... it can't be those ones either (you would hope...).

A quick look at coinmarketcap reveals that the daily volume for STEEM/BTC on Poloniex was only around 80,000 euros (around 88,000 USD or around 1260584790040884820485 Pounds... haha, I'm sure the confidence in Pounds will come back when you guys figure out what to do with Brexit!).... anyway, I wouldn't really advise taking a look at the volumes for STEEM unless you want a big shock... 300,000 euros per day on Binance... and nearly 17 million euros on Bithumb! Anyway, so I'm guessing that the delisting has more to do with lack of liquidity and volume rather than any problems with regulation or the project in general.

Now, one would ask... why does it matter to lose Poloniex (which is owned by Circle and in turn Goldmann Sachs?). Why do we care? Or the more extreme amongst us might argue that we don't care about the banker's crypto exchanges and screw them!...

Well, I would argue that this delisting (whilst not being a disaster by any stretch of the imagination...) is important... as it WAS the regulated banker's exchanged. Like it or not, the mainstream population of the world (or at least the first and developed worlds) WANT regulated financial markets and regulated exchanges. They want the middleman... at least in the short term. So, losing this "stamp of authority" is a symbolic loss for STEEM. In practical terms, it doesn't mean that much.. as there was not much trade on that exchange anyway...

Poloniex is an exchange that does see some interest from established financial players... the fact that it is indirectly owned by known and "trusted" names in finance circles makes it an interesting first stop for people who are interested in crypto that hail from more of an investment background. The fact that it is US based does make it more vulnerable to regulation but again, this is something that can be a positive draw card from people who come from more established financial circles.... we would do well to realise that however revolutionary the crypto ecosystem is, and how much the end goal is to upend the existing financial and power structures... that there is a time and place to pick fights... and to be perfectly blunt, the size and power of the financial institutions are much more than capable of wreaking havoc on the comparatively tiny cryptocurrency ecology.

A smarter option (and in my view... the more likely outcome) will be to harness and co-opt the existing systems (and in turn be harnessed and co-opted).... this means that exchanges that have the trust of the existing system will be important... I know that most of us personally don't use Poloniex and Coinbase, but there are many people who think otherwise and would be much more comfortable using these exchanges rather than DEX's, Kucoin orBinance!

Does this delisting hurt us materially... NO, there wasn't that much volume... however, symbolically it stings a bit! Besides, the more places that STEEM is available the better... and losing the potential easy gateway and placement with a Circle-owned exchange is just one less ticket in the race to get that lucky break!

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