OK. This is very weird. All these Poloniex withdrawal issue threads. I have just withdrawn 0.05BTC from Poloniex two hours ago, and the transaction has been confirmed in like 15 minutes, so I really don't know what this issue is, or why people are experiencing it.
No withdrawal should need to manually be approved, because then you're at the mercy of these utter bastards.
I'd call it either "selective scamming" or "manipulative behaviour to earn profit from the vast amounts of BTC deposited into the exchange". Most likely the latter or a combination of both.
Shit man! My withdrawal is experiencing the same problem for the third time, yesterday I tried to withdraw with doge then withdrawal with BTC and it runs fine, but now after I buy ETH then I make a withdrawal on some BTC I have but my withdrawal status is " Awaiting approval "again.
I'm traumatized to withdraw BTC from poloniex, I'd better do withdrawal on altcoin from poloniex.
I'd say try to withdraw it all at once and then leave Poloniex altogether. The risk of losing your coins far exceeds the reward of keeping your funds in there at the moment. Just move to Bittrex or something.