LocalBitcoins, one of the most popular peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges, announced this week that it is shutting its business after more than ten years of operation. In its Twitter announcement, the P2P platform said that it can no longer provide its service due to the “challenges during the ongoing very cold crypto-winter.” They already stopped new signups. LocalBitcoins users will be able to withdraw their cryptos over the next 12 months.
A Decent Goodbye
LocalBitcoins was founded by Jeremias Kangas in 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. In 2019, a CipherTrace report revealed that the platform was one a preferred destinations for illicit Bitcoin. Since then, LocalBitcoins imposed a cash ban on the platform and introduced Know-Your-Customer (KYC) features.
LocalBitcoins shows that the crypto industry is rapidly developing and changing. But it also shows that it is possible to say goodbye with decency and without losing customers’ money. We hope that this decent closure or liquidation will indeed be successfully implemented.
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If you have any information about LocalBitcoins, its operators and partners, please let us know via our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
