Poloniex announces the spin-off from Circle, halting its U.S. operations to fully expand into international markets.

The Poloniex exchange will separate from its parent company Circle and will be operated by an Asian company, Polo Digital Assets, Ltd. It is understood that the main investor behind this new operator is the founder of the TRX project. The senior executives of both companies have had close interactions in the past and participated in a high-profile business dinner together.

In early 2018, under the leadership of a well-known investment institution, Circle acquired the then leading Poloniex exchange for $400 million. However, affected by the regulatory environment, Poloniex’s market share and trading volume plummeted from the peak in the first half of 2017 (which accounted for 58% of the total market volume). Currently, its daily trading volume is only over $20 million, and it has fallen to outside the top 80 exchanges globally. In May of this year, Poloniex stopped providing trading services for 9 cryptocurrencies to US users.

In the latest announcement, Poloniex stated that it will shift its focus to the international market and will completely stop serving US users from November 1. The new operations team plans to invest $100 million to expand its business and announced that from October 21 to the end of the year, the platform’s spot trading fees will be temporarily reduced to zero to attract more international users.

This series of measures demonstrates that Poloniex, under the leadership of the new operational team, is actively adjusting its strategic direction in hopes of reclaiming its share in the international cryptocurrency exchange market. However, given the current highly competitive industry environment, it remains to be seen whether Poloniex can regain its former glory.