Topic: Rip localbitcoins.com (Read 301 times)

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that has low volume will have a high chance of liquidation, so anyone that has a balance on local bitcoin should have withdrawn them by now since the announced closure of the exchange stipulate the durations of time that withdrawal will be open.

No probelm, if you did not know about this before. Of course no one visit these sites regularly, only when one needs to use this service  one may visit the site. You can learn everything as when the local bitcoin was closed and until when one can withdraw funds etc from this link https://localbitcoins.com/service_closure/

Anyways, since we have the P2P services integrated in binance and other platforms, the localbitcoins would find it difficult to survive unless they thought of something extraordinary like starting their own exchange or something. Sometimes the business just ends up due to excessive competition.

Must have missed it , cant find the topic.

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

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

My guy probably still using internet explorer, This tragedy happened months ago but yes it was sad and very unfortunate of it happening and I highly doubt if some similar site like this one will ever exist again.

This tragedy happened months ago but yes it was sad and very unfortunate of it happening and I highly doubt if some similar site like this one will ever exist again. I personally was never a fan of it regardless but yeah it was fun while it lasted.

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.

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 heard rumors that they were having issues with authorities, perhaps they were forced to close?

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

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.

Must have missed it , cant find the topic.

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?

https://localbitcoins.com/

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

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.

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

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.