Localbitcoins, one of the first peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges, announced that is shutting down operations citing challenges due to the “ongoing very cold crypto-winter.”
LocalBitcoins was founded by Jeremias Kangas in 2012 in Helsinki, Finland. It provided a service matching Bitcoin buyers and sellers, with the coins held in escrow until both parties confirmed the transaction. In its hey days, it boasted of doing over $100 million in weekly trading volume of peer-to-peer transactions.
Here is the announcement on its website about discontinuing its service:
Dear Valued Customers,
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.
We encourage all customers to withdraw their funds from LocalBitcoins and we ask you to proceed with withdrawing the Bitcoins from your LocalBitcoins wallet. You have 12 months to withdraw, however of course we encourage you to proceed withdrawing sooner.
Thank you for being a part of the LocalBitcoins family! It has been our honor and pleasure to serve you over the last decade.
It suspended the sign up of new customers on the 9th of February and suspend trading on LacalBitcoins and the use of the LocalBitcoins wallet (with exception of withdrawing one’s funds) on the 16th of February 2023.
After 2023-02-17, LocalBitcoins customers will only be able to log-in to withdraw their Bitcoins. The trading and Wallet services will no longer be available at this point.