Great post. The correlation between he Poloniex halt and the SBD pump seems obvious now. Btw, last time Poloniex halted Steem and SBD trading for than a month before resuming.

Also, I think the Tether situation is affecting Poloniex as many people's deposits and withdrawals of different coins are being halted for no reason. Just check out their subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/poloniex/