LocalBitcoins Closing Down Due to Market Conditions

Peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin trading platform LocalBitcoins will be shutting down its operations by the end of the month due to tough market conditions, the company said in a notice on 9 February.

According to the announcement, the “ongoing very cold crypto-winter” is the main reason behind the decision to close down the Helsinki-based crypto exchange, which is one of the longest-running BTC trading platforms with 10 years of experience in the industry. Although the exchange had experienced a surge in trading activity in the last months of 2017, it is now averaging only between $5 million and $7 million in weekly trading volume. The company wrote:

“Originally LocalBitcoins was established to Bring Bitcoin Everywhere and drive global financial inclusion. We have honored that mission for over 10 years and we are proud of what we have achieved together with all of you, our loyal community. We are therefore sad to share, that regardless of our efforts to overcome challenges during the ongoing very cold crypto-winter, we have regretfully concluded that LocalBitcoins can no longer provide its Bitcoin trading service.”

The company has suspended all new user registrations, and ecouraged its customers to withdraw all their crypto assets from the platform. Trading activity on LocalBitcoins will be suspended on 16 February, after which users will only be able to login into their wallets to withdraw their funds. The company also noted that users will have 12 months to withdraw their assets before the service is disabled completely.

In the early days of Bitcoin, LocalBitcoins became a key marketplace that offered users looking to buy and sell BTC peer-to-peer and escrow services. While the platform did not originally require Know-Your-Customer information, this was later changed when it started to be regulated by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority in 2019.