Paxful Trading Volumes Exceeds LocalBitcoins’ For The First Time In History: Research

Competition in the peer-to-peer crypto trading scene is stiff. Two of the top contenders, Paxful and LocalBitcoins, are prominent features. Arcane Research, on June 17, 2020, revealed that for the first time, Paxful trading volumes have surpassed those of LocalBitcoins. 

This is a remarkable feat for the P2P trading platform which has not only been consistent over time but has been striking deals with some of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges like OkEx.

LocalBitcoins Slips

From the chart, it is clear that LocalBitcoins trading volumes have been consistently falling amid several claims of trader bans and account freezing.

Early this year, traders took to Twitter and Reddit to express their frustrations that the P2P trading platform had without warning locked their accounts, cutting off thousands of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin from their access.

Specifically affected were longtime traders who depended on BTC trading as a livelihood.

The Finnish platform cited “enhanced due diligence” to justify their purge of trader accounts in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

“Customers residing or otherwise located in the following countries are required to have an enhanced due diligence process. The countries are defined by EU commission: Afghanistan, American Samoa, The Bahamas, Botswana, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guam, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Puerto Rico, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, US Virgin Islands, and Yemen.”

Paxful has gained ground

Coupled with frequent unscheduled maintenance, these blips seemed to have paved the way for Paxful.

Over the years, the exchange has been involved in several corporate social responsibilities in several African countries including Kenya. Moreover, their promotions seem to have helped.

Just recently, Paxful announced a partnership with OKEx. The objective is to enhance their user experience by providing better liquidity and access.

Subsequently, Paxful will act as a crypto-to-fiat on-ramp for OKEx services enabling their clients to buy Bitcoin from the over 100 fiat currencies supported by the platform.

Ray Youssef, the CEO and co-founder of Paxful, said:

“With this partnership, we hope to make crypto more accessible as a real-world payment method. Through this partnership, we can reach more users in developing regions using Paxful’s existing infrastructure and payment options.”