LocalBitcoins closes its doors – A page in the history of BTC is turned

Crypto Winter Claims Another Victim – It is with sadness that we learn the closure of a service that had served for a long time within the community Bitcoin (BTC): the over-the-counter trading platform (peer to peer) LocalBitcoins. The bad news has just fallen this Thursday, February 9, 2023.

After more than 10 years of good and loyal service, LocalBitcoins bows out

The cryptosphere is still reeling from this sad news. The peer-to-peer BTC exchange LocalBitcoinslaunched in 2012will finally have not survived to the crypto-asset bear market of 2022.

In a press release published this February 9, LocalBitcoins announces “discontinue service”. From that date, the new registrations are stopped short. In one week, on February 16, 2023, all exchanges will be stopped. All transactions on the platform’s wallets will also be suspended to this date. Except of course withdrawalswhich will remain possible for 1 year :

“We encourage all customers to withdraw their funds from LocalBitcoins, and we ask that you proceed with the withdrawal of bitcoins from your LocalBitcoins wallet. You have 12 months to withdraw your funds, but of course we encourage you to do so as soon as possible. »

>> Diversify your portfolio! Sign up on Trade Republic and receive 20€ (subject to deposit of 2000€) to take action (commercial link) <<

The crypto winter will have put an end to an institution in the Bitcoin community

According to the farewell message posted on Twitter (below), this would be this “very cold crypto winter” who would have finished completing LocalBitcoins. BTC’s peer-to-peer exchange service had obviously already been undermined for some time by trading volumes and an market share who would have “keep going down”.

Even if the market context is obviously not favourable, this sudden stoppage of LocalBitcoins will surely have surprised many. The strong regulatory pressure current, which pushes tracing and at the surveillance blockchain transactions, probably did not help the survival of this real institution in the Bitcoin universe either. Just a week ago, it’s the NFT Rally platform that passed away also frozen to death following this long bear market.

The crypto market can be tumultuous at times! To balance your portfolio, it is necessary to diversify.Join Trade Republic now. You will receive a bonus of 20€ (subject to a deposit of 2000€) to take action (commercial link).