🍊 PEACH - At a crossroads

[aoluain]

Just making a few trades now on Peach and I'm seeing this new news on their blog.

https://peachbitcoin.com/blog/peach-at-a-crossroads/

This is serious

Peach got licensed in 2022 and got audited successfully by an independent audit company in 2023, 2024 and 2025.

But this year, the regulator has decided that the rule of yesterday is not the rule of today. You know… 1984 and all. What was true yesterday is not true today.

So, last month I received a letter. Despite a successful independent audit, the regulator — for an unknown reason — is arguing to requalify and reconsider the compliance agreement that they themselves approved some years ago.

I am not gonna lie to you, I knew from day 1 that it would happen one day or another. I often tweet "Stack sats while you still can" for a reason.

I am not giving up and complying yet. At least not without answering to the regulator. I will be fully honest too: if I lose the argument, I won't go against it either. Peach has been a legal business since day 1, and I intend to keep it this way.

So this absolutely sucks, I've been using Peach for 3 years and over 120 KYC free trades
done, I'll be gutted if this changed.

Lately I have been finding it really convenient, fast and hassle free to trade on Peach, way
easier than HodlHodl for example

The crossroads
I don't know what the future holds for Peach. What I know is that Peach is not just a marketplace. Peach is a brand, a reputation, a user base and a community.

Peach is now at a crossroads.

The p2p marketplace may or may not continue as usual with an escrow model.

Maybe the time has come to diversify. Peach is ideally positioned to develop a suite of self-custodial services, to become the Bitcoin companion you'll recommend to your wife, grandma and sister.

Maybe this route will have to continue without me.

The path will unfold over the coming weeks. I will keep you posted.

[NotATether]

I depend on P2P marketplaces for survival (not Peach in particular), so I hope they're not coming after all of them to close them down! 

[joniboini]

Sucks to hear that. Not surprised about governments changing their minds on things too. If the people in charge is still the same it's quite surprising though. I guess one of the higher ups decide they should change some stuffs for whatever reasons. I remember being told I need to take offline test to renew my driver license despite the governments advertising online integration for years now.

[aoluain]

I depend on P2P marketplaces for survival (not Peach in particular), so I hope they're not coming after all of them to close them down!  

Yea its worrying, this might (hopefully) be an isolated case. It doesnt make sense to move the
goalposts so to speak. There is an agreement in place with limits and nothing has changed.
Its a very simple setup, we can trade x amount daily anonymously and if you go over it there is
KYC involved.

Looking back in history its riddled with agreements which were reneged on when things dont
suit one party all of a sudden

If the people in charge is still the same it's quite surprising though.

There could be the case that someone new is in charge of whatever area the service falls under
and has a chip on their shoulder about Bitcoin.

[aoluain]

Just updating to say that things have changed over on the Peach platform. Trades have gone to
an "Escrow Free" model, trader to trader - which has the potential for scams I suspect.

I tried testing this and cannot seem to be able to buy or my buy orders are not being accepted,
IDK, TBH I'm a little confused.