Bitcoin exchange LocalBitcoins is shutting down citing market conditions

According to an announcement on their website, the peer-to-peerBitcoin-Platform shut down before the end of February 2023.

LocalBitcoins has announced that the exchange will be closed until the end of February. The long-standing Bitcoin trading service was the first peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction platform for many Bitcoiners. Launched in June 2012, the exchange is one of the oldest entities in Bitcoin and in its heyday established itself as the primary P2P player with over $100 million in weekly trading volume in peer-to-peer transactions.

“Originally, LocalBitcoins was formed to bring Bitcoin Everywhere and advance global financial inclusion,” reads the announcement. “We’ve been fulfilling this mission for over 10 years and are proud of what we’ve accomplished together with all of you, our loyal community.”

The announcement cites “challenges during the persistently very cold crypto winter” as the reason for the shutdown. The exchange has informed customers that they should withdraw their funds from LocalBitcoins and withdraw their bitcoin from the LocalBitcoins wallet. It notes that customers have 12 months to complete this process, although they encourage users to do so sooner.

Notably, the shutdown came just as p2p bitcoin traders and individual sellers were under scrutiny from US regulators. While not mentioned in the announcement, one could assume that these recent actions have resulted in lower volume on platforms like LocalBitcoins.

Despite this pressure, alternatives like RoboSats and Bisq still work for bitcoiners looking to acquire bitcoin through P2P transactions.