Russians have really started to warm up to Bitcoin this year. Charts from Coin.dance show a new all-time high volume on LocalBitcoins for the week ending 2016-08-20: 215,548,659 Roubles ($3,353,277 at the current USD/RUB exchange rate of 64.28) in digital currency trades.
The rising interest in the digital currency has even spurred some LocalBitcoins traders to open physical trading venues in Russia. For example, BTC24pro.com, an established seller on LocalBitcoins, has opened an office in Moscow that allows locals to convert their digital currency to Russian Roubles. According to a SiliconAngle report, BTC24pro charges a 4% premium during regular hours and a 10% premium during off-hours.
While the outfit is not currently registered with any monetary authorities within the Russian Federation, the owners have expressed their willingness to cooperate with regulators if the need arises.
Despite the rise of reputable & licensed digital currency trading platforms in the United States like Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini, LocalBitcoins trading volumes have continued to surge in America as well. Last week, LocalBitcoins turnover in the US came in at $8,099,706 - an new all-time high!
One might assume that the rise of regulated exchanges will render venues such as LocalBitcoins obsolete, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Many of the established digital currency exchanges like Poloniex, Bitstamp, Gatecoin and ShapeShift have been hacked at least once already, and the addition of the recent Bitfinex hack to the growing roster of compromised exchanges will likely steer even more users to venues like LocalBitcoins and decentralized P2P platform, Bitsquare.
Did you like this article? Tip Me:
