ETH is cheaper to move around than BTC in general, so smaller investors are very likely to have most crypto in ETH rather than BTC. It's clear that Poloniex's actions will at least significantly dent any possible upward momentum in STEEM... And that's not a good sign for some of us who may have some interest in running an small income generating operation on STEEM.
I've written my response three different ways, but it keeps coming down to you have assumed information that hasn't been shared. I didn't advocate two transfer fees, and I don't know where the second one came from without making assumptions about fiat gateways, in/out transactions, etc.
Blocktrades isn't a fiat gateway, so it would be cheaper to trade across two currencies on poloniex than across one on Blocktrades, unless Poloniex's STEEM withdrawal fee is abnormally high (on binance it's 0.01 STEEM). If their withdrawal fee is high, maybe that's why people weren't trading the pair?
True.
But the BTC fees are quite high. So, anyone with a small amount of investment interest or income will avoid buying.
In effect, the off ramp from Steem is being kept open for large investors... and the on-ramp is being closed for small investors.
Withdrawal fees are high, trading fees are low.
It would be cheaper to trade STEEM for BTC and then BTC for ETH and withdraw ETH on Poloniex than to trade STEEM for ETH on Poloniex.
And it says right in your screenshot... the trading pair is being removed because people weren't using it.
Does it matter if an on-ramp is closed if nobody is driving over it anyway?
Two transfer fees are not cheaper than one.
ETH is cheaper to move around than BTC in general, so smaller investors are very likely to have most crypto in ETH rather than BTC. It's clear that Poloniex's actions will at least significantly dent any possible upward momentum in STEEM... And that's not a good sign for some of us who may have some interest in running an small income generating operation on STEEM.
I've written my response three different ways, but it keeps coming down to you have assumed information that hasn't been shared. I didn't advocate two transfer fees, and I don't know where the second one came from without making assumptions about fiat gateways, in/out transactions, etc.
Blocktrades isn't a fiat gateway, so it would be cheaper to trade across two currencies on poloniex than across one on Blocktrades, unless Poloniex's STEEM withdrawal fee is abnormally high (on binance it's 0.01 STEEM). If their withdrawal fee is high, maybe that's why people weren't trading the pair?