Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency trading has been mostly dominated by trading venues such as LocalBitcoins for the past several years, where traders could swap popular cryptocurrencies for U.S. dollars, Canadian dollars, as well as other major fiat currencies using legacy payment processors like PayPal, Moneygram and Western Union.
However, since the start of the year, a new challenger has emerged in the space: Paxful. The service allows consumers to purchase and sell bitcoin anonymously via Amazon, Macy’s, Wallmat and OneVanilla gift cards, in addition to many other online payment systems.
While majority of P2P bitcoin activity in the United States and Canada was conducted on LocalBitcoins in 2017, Paxful has become the leader in the space this year, according to data published by Coin.dance.
In the first week of September, Paxful volumes in the U.S. and Canada were double those of LocalBitcoins:
Paxful’s rapid growth in popularity among American bitcoin users is not just confined to the last few weeks, but extends to the beginning of the year, while turnover on LocalBitcoins has been in decline over the same period.
Paxful volumes in the USA:
LocalBitcoins volumes in the USA:
It remains unclear if LocalBitcoins’ new KYC/AML policies, which came into effect in April, had any negative impact on its existing clientele.
Bitcoin photo credit: 1
