LocalBitcoins Shuts Down Amid Crypto Winter

Peer-to-peer bitcoin trading platform LocalBitcoins will be discontinuing its services after over a decade of operations.

The announcement makes LocalBitcoins the latest victim of the ongoing crypto winter.

• In a statement published on Thursday (Feb. 9, 2023), LocalBitcoins said it will be shutting down due to its inability to cope with the bear market rocking the industry.

“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.”

• Consequently, the platform will suspend new signups on Feb. 9 and also halt trading and wallet services on Feb. 16. LocalBitcoins further stated that customers will only be able to make bitcoin withdrawals after Feb. 17.
• Thus, the popular P2P crypto trading platform, which added several altcoins a few years back to its fleet, becomes the latest victim of the bear market.
• Aside from the multiple bankruptcies filed by several fallen companies, others had to cope with downsizing their workforce. Numerous exchanges, including some of the most prominent names, such as Coinbase, Bybit, Huobi, etc., had to lay off thousands of employees in the past year or so.
• Although bitcoin and many of the altcoins have posted impressive gains since the start of the year, there were still multiple firms that had to cut down.