Yet another crypto-related firm is shutting down its services due to volatile market conditions.
LocalBitcoins, a Finland-based peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) exchange, is discontinuing its services.
According to the brief announcement shared on February 9th, customers are encouraged to withdraw their funds from LocalBitcoins wallets as soon as possible.
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In the announcement, LocalBitcoins highlighted that it was forced to shut down its services due to a “very cold crypto-winter.”
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.
Based on the LocalBitcoins discontinuing timeline, upon the announcement, the company is suspending new sign-ups. In a week, on February 16th, the BTC exchange plans to halt trading and the use of the LocalBitcoins wallet.
Afterward, the platform's customers will be able to only log in and withdraw their funds. The company noted that customers have 12 months to empty their LocalBitcoin wallets. However, the firm encouraged customers to “proceed with withdrawing sooner.”
The end of the peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchange platform came shortly after the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network named LocalBitcoins one of the biggest BTC senders to Russia-related crypto exchange Bitzlato.
International authorities launched several investigations into the crypto exchange. At the end of January, Europol seized over $19 million (€ 18 million) worth of crypto from wallets tied to crypto exchange Bitzlato and “took down the service’s digital infrastructure in France.”
When asked about LocalBitcoins’ relationship with Bitzlato, the Bitcoin exchange platform’s chief marketing officer, Jukka Blomberg, denied any relations and noted:
Based on our data there have practically been no transactions between LocalBitcoins and BitZlato since October 2022, after we stopped serving Russian user accounts and accounts of users residing in Russia.
On top of that, Blomberg highlighted that the firm was regulated by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority and met all Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering requirements.
