We believe every cryptocurrency site (whether it is an exchange or mining pool) should go through a real-time public audit. In fact, one of the greatest strengths of cryptocurrency is the ability to use the global ledger to verify holdings. If the classical banking system were as easy to audit and verify, then perhaps some of the past financial crises and bubbles could have been avoided. After the Mt. Gox insolvency, and many other failures, it is only prudent to provide a real-time, easy to understand, verifiable, and transparent audit.
A hot wallet is connected to the website and used to send payments. The hot wallet is essentially "at risk", in the event of a hacker draining the funds. A cold wallet is kept off the codebase and is used to hold excess funds and replenish the hot wallet when needed.
Balances are updated every 60 seconds. To independently verify amounts, use the API/Social page and crawl each user and use the provided Block Explorer links. We currently have 91% of coins in cold storage, to protect our users from loss.