Rip localbitcoins.com

[swiftxi]

https://localbitcoins.com/



Shame to see it down after 10 years of trading on there.

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[Jawhead999]

You're too late, it's has been discussed 1-2 months ago if I'm not mistaken

[swiftxi]

You're too late, it's has been discussed 1-2 months ago if I'm not mistaken

Must have missed it , cant find the topic.

[Learn Bitcoin]

You're too late, it's has been discussed 1-2 months ago if I'm not mistaken

Not 1-2 months ago. LocalBitcoins announced their closure on February first week. They announced that their service will close on 16 February 2023. The fact is, they were still releasing new features til January 2023. At least this makes me think the decision did not take long. The company decided to close its platform within a short time. According to them, The trading volume in LocalBitcoins has been declining for a long time, and there is no significant market demand for their service. No company will run a business that is not profitable anymore. So, they had to take this decision.

[Ojima-ojo]

You're too late, it's has been discussed 1-2 months ago if I'm not mistaken

Not 1-2 months ago. LocalBitcoins announced their closure on February first week. They announced that their service will close on 16 February 2023. The fact is, they were still releasing new features til January 2023. At least this makes me think the decision did not take long. The company decided to close its platform within a short time. According to them, The trading volume in LocalBitcoins has been declining for a long time, and there is no significant market demand for their service. No company will run a business that is not profitable anymore. So, they had to take this decision.

Local bitcoin has been in the exchange business for quite a long term and to see how low volume the exchange has become long before their announced closer it is clear why they were in a rush to close down the exchange.

Trading volume is one of the major ways to check and maintain liquidities and another operational cost, and any business that has low volume will have a high chance of liquidation, so anyone that has a balance on local bitcoin should have withdrawn them by now since the announced closure of the exchange stipulate the durations of time that withdrawal will be open.

[cheezcarls]

I have never used LocalBitcoins.com for P2P but I knew that they have been here for so long. It’s the OG of the P2P crypto trading (but correct me if I am wrong). It’s just unfortunate that they have to close because of the declining number of traders in using their platform, so nothing is really permanent.

But there are still other P2P platforms from exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, OKX, ByBit, etc., that we can still use as of the moment.

[Z-tight]

Must have missed it , cant find the topic.

These are the topics about the closure of Localbitcoins:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5439906.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5439145.0
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5439202.0

The trading volume in LocalBitcoins has been declining for a long time, and there is no significant market demand for their service. No company will run a business that is not profitable anymore. So, they had to take this decision.

Localbitcoins lost their trading volume because they used to be a p2p BTC exchange that later began to ask for KYC from their customers, their users were people who wanted to trade only p2p, so obviously trading volume was going to drop, as their customers moved to other BTC p2p exchanges.

But there are still other P2P platforms from exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, OKX, ByBit, etc., that we can still use as of the moment.

Binance, OKX and other centralized exchanges are not true p2p exchanges because you do not trade directly with the other trading party.

[swiftxi]

I guess 10million volume wasnt enough to keep up the website..
Locallitecoins.com also gone, selling domain name for 5100$.
There are still some P2P exchanges on the internet, but lots of Nigerian scammers on them , I know localbitcoins was 100% anti scam and well upkept exchange.

[franky1]

The trading volume in LocalBitcoins has been declining for a long time, and there is no significant market demand for their service. No company will run a business that is not profitable anymore. So, they had to take this decision.

Localbitcoins lost their trading volume because they used to be a p2p BTC exchange that later began to ask for KYC from their customers, their users were people who wanted to trade only p2p, so obviously trading volume was going to drop, as their customers moved to other BTC p2p exchanges.

whole saga explained in short
when P2P traders become popular. THEIR BANKS see people using personal accounts doing ALOT of wire transfers. much more than normal people do on personal accounts. this triggers banks to flag such accounts and investigate

in many cases those p2p traders had to upgrade to business accounts register as a payment facilitator/money service. which meant requirements of doing KYC

this eventually lead to localbitcoins needing to add this data collection feature

other events where scammers. who would buy bitcoin. and where the scammer would contact their own bank and claim that a hackers accessed their bank and sent some money to a thief. .. thus the scammer got the bitcoin and a fiat refund. and made the btc seller be flagged as a thief

this too caused sellers to want more info on the buyer to prove the buyer was the account holder

..
now here is the thing
DEX platforms are new. so they have yet to hit the scenarios localbitcoin sellers are hit with due to lack of popularity.. however when DEX seller get popular and start doing too many wire transfers or getting scammed and treated as thieves. they too will end up shutting up shop or going official.

thus DEX wont change things, its just the same saga in repeat. where DEX is just at the beginning and yet to hit the drama

[mendace]

Localbitcoins lost their trading volume because they used to be a p2p BTC exchange that later began to ask for KYC from their customers, their users were people who wanted to trade only p2p, so obviously trading volume was going to drop, as their customers moved to other BTC p2p exchanges.

But there are still other P2P platforms from exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, OKX, ByBit, etc., that we can still use as of the moment.

Binance, OKX and other centralized exchanges are not true p2p exchanges because you do not trade directly with the other trading party.

When a service was created to give privacy and ends up having to remove it, this was the biggest mistake of localbitcoin.  In the wake of this closure, others will benefit such as Bisq, Robosats and even Peach.  As long as there are similar services that operate on Tor, it is better to prefer them to many others.

[dragonvslinux]

Localbitcoins lost their trading volume because they used to be a p2p BTC exchange that later began to ask for KYC from their customers, their users were people who wanted to trade only p2p, so obviously trading volume was going to drop, as their customers moved to other BTC p2p exchanges.

But there are still other P2P platforms from exchanges like Binance, KuCoin, OKX, ByBit, etc., that we can still use as of the moment.

Binance, OKX and other centralized exchanges are not true p2p exchanges because you do not trade directly with the other trading party.

When a service was created to give privacy and ends up having to remove it, this was the biggest mistake of localbitcoin.  In the wake of this closure, others will benefit such as Bisq, Robosats and even Peach.

It was also quite the monopoly of the P2P Bitcoin market which I never liked, so better that it shut down and paved the way for better alternatives. Similar to when there was a monopoly over a centralised exchange like MtGox, a darkweb market like Silk Road, a Bitcoin mixer like ChipMixer, or any other Bitcoin-based service. The ecosystem only gets stronger once the leading horse is taken down and the monopoly ends.

[DaveF]

It was also quite the monopoly of the P2P Bitcoin market which I never liked, so better that it shut down and paved the way for better alternatives. Similar to when there was a monopoly over a centralised exchange like MtGox, a darkweb market like Silk Road, a Bitcoin mixer like ChipMixer, or any other Bitcoin-based service. The ecosystem only gets stronger once the leading horse is taken down and the monopoly ends.

Towards the end, say the last couple of years, it was not that big.
First they got rid of the P2P face to face cash options. Then they started blocking people based on region, then the KYC.
So many better options exist. They kind of did themselves in.

For non KYC P2P trading options see: https://kycnot.me/

-Dave

[serveria.com]

The trading volume in LocalBitcoins has been declining for a long time, and there is no significant market demand for their service. No company will run a business that is not profitable anymore. So, they had to take this decision.

Localbitcoins lost their trading volume because they used to be a p2p BTC exchange that later began to ask for KYC from their customers, their users were people who wanted to trade only p2p, so obviously trading volume was going to drop, as their customers moved to other BTC p2p exchanges.

whole saga explained in short
when P2P traders become popular. THEIR BANKS see people using personal accounts doing ALOT of wire transfers. much more than normal people do on personal accounts. this triggers banks to flag such accounts and investigate

in many cases those p2p traders had to upgrade to business accounts register as a payment facilitator/money service. which meant requirements of doing KYC

this eventually lead to localbitcoins needing to add this data collection feature

other events where scammers. who would buy bitcoin. and where the scammer would contact their own bank and claim that a hackers accessed their bank and sent some money to a thief. .. thus the scammer got the bitcoin and a fiat refund. and made the btc seller be flagged as a thief

this too caused sellers to want more info on the buyer to prove the buyer was the account holder

..
now here is the thing
DEX platforms are new. so they have yet to hit the scenarios localbitcoin sellers are hit with due to lack of popularity.. however when DEX seller get popular and start doing too many wire transfers or getting scammed and treated as thieves. they too will end up shutting up shop or going official.

thus DEX wont change things, its just the same saga in repeat. where DEX is just at the beginning and yet to hit the drama

I think there's more than that. Scammer issue is pretty much solvable, in the worst case they could have left just the cash option. KYC also doesn't seem to be the root of the issue - they could have just migrated to another country (somewhere offshore). I've heard rumors that they were having issues with authorities, perhaps they were forced to close? But then again: why didn't they sell the company or the domain? I guess there would be many people willing to take over.

[dragonvslinux]

It was also quite the monopoly of the P2P Bitcoin market which I never liked, so better that it shut down and paved the way for better alternatives. Similar to when there was a monopoly over a centralised exchange like MtGox, a darkweb market like Silk Road, a Bitcoin mixer like ChipMixer, or any other Bitcoin-based service. The ecosystem only gets stronger once the leading horse is taken down and the monopoly ends.

Towards the end, say the last couple of years, it was not that big.
First they got rid of the P2P face to face cash options. Then they started blocking people based on region, then the KYC.
So many better options exist. They kind of did themselves in.

Well sounds like they shot themselves in the foot so to speak then! I'm not surprised either as there would have been a lot of scrutiny on their centralised platform after many scammers, hackers and criminals had cashed out large amount of coins there, as it was once the go-to-place to sell coins anonymously. Hence implementing KYC I imagine, no doubt because they were pressured into it by certain govs.

I remember the likes of Bisq from years ago, so aware that better alternatives have existed for many years already, but sometimes it takes the most utilised platform to fall for the others to really take off...

[Fivestar4everMVP]

https://localbitcoins.com/

Shame to see it down after 10 years of trading on there.

I will say congratulations to them rather than shame, they came, saw and conquered, they ran their race for 10 good years and decided it is the finish line for them, they are 100 percent better than those who came and fell off even before we could blink an eye, some even turned scam by rug pulling on their users, catering away with monies they didn't work for..
Localbitcoin have served  the bitcoin community well, and on their own decided they are bringing their service to an end, with customers withdrawals processed in full - I will say congratulations and Goodluck to their next project, rather then say shame.

[Cryptomiles1]

I have never used this platform before and I don't know how they work.
What was the main reason of their closure after 10 years of service, there are several platform that have also lasted enough and closing their operation shows what?
Incapability or what?

[Baofeng]

[quote author=Cryptomiles1 link=topic=5451753.msg62206392#msg62206392 date=1683407813]
I have never used this platform before and I don't know how they work.
What was the main reason of their closure after 10 years of service, there are several platform that have also lasted enough and closing their operation shows what?
Incapability or what?
[/quote]

If you are not aware of:

[img width=430]https://talkimg.com/images/2023/05/16/blobaa2e48cb549467dc.png[/img]

https://localbitcoins.com/service_closure/

So according to them, it's because of crypto-winter, however, they were also cited by the US Treasury Department as one of the operators that traded with Bizlato which is accused of money laundering by US. So the pressure mounted on them, with the market situation + regulatory pressure.

[romero121]

I have never used this platform before and I don't know how they work.
What was the main reason of their closure after 10 years of service, there are several platform that have also lasted enough and closing their operation shows what?
Incapability or what?

I've been using it for atleast eight years. I encountered with some issues at the beginning and lost fund, which was due to my mistake. Later I have been using it till its closure and never faced any issues. It is a platform through which one can find the right person to buy/sell bitcoin with ease. Earlier it had face to face trading access, through which buyer and seller agree to meet-up at some location and exchange the bitcoin for cash. This has been blocked for security reason. Over the year its performance came down drastically and it is one among the licenced platform. It's average trading volume of $40 million dropped down to the range of $6-$7.5 million which is a big blow. With that they tried to sustain in the market and unable to increase. This has been cited as the reason for the closure.

[tabas]

You're too late, it's has been discussed 1-2 months ago if I'm not mistaken

Must have missed it , cant find the topic.

It was posted on the Exchanges, it was just dumped on two-three pages of that section.
One of the oldest P2P or should I say the oldest has gone now and I guess someone will just make a tribute to them that they've been part of the growth of Bitcoin and its community.
We shall see some new P2P markets going to be popular and if you guys are no longer enticed with these P2P markets asking for KYC, we've got some that don't ask for it legitimately and hopefully won't follow the footsteps of LBC that later on asked for it.

[glendall]

Localbitcoins lost their trading volume because they used to be a p2p BTC exchange that later began to ask for KYC from their customers, their users were people who wanted to trade only p2p, so obviously trading volume was going to drop, as their customers moved to other BTC p2p exchanges.

difficult to defend if you have to do KYC, especially just for P2p because most people who do p2p are people who avoid KYC
Even though there are many new features that support it, there is no guarantee that people will continue to transact there, especially since this is only a local exchange