Local Bitcoins Review 8.75/10⭐

If you are interested in trying Local Bitcoins out, have a read here and learn all you need to know to get started with the best possible offer.

Buy bitcoin locally, with almost any deposit method. Local Bitcoins make crypto investment easy.

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Background & Overview

 

Local Bitcoins embraces the nature of Bitcoin through its peer-to-peer platform. It allows you to trade directly with another party in a convenient, customizable, lean, and fast method without a corporate overhead. Additionally, the process is instant, and one gets their bitcoin immediately. The platform also aims to support every suitable payment methods that the user community supports. Also, the fact that the platform offers escrow protection makes the bitcoins and the traders safe. The creation and transfer of Bitcoin to the wallet are fast and secure. The company intends to connect everyone through the internet and expand to make the global economy accessible worldwide through Bitcoin trading and change how the financial world works. Visit Local Bitcoins now!

›› Not a customer yet? Register with Local Bitcoins today, it's quick and simple!
 

Advantages at Local Bitcoins

+Local Bitcoins has no buying or selling fees.
+The bitcoin exchange provides a wide variety of payment options, more than any competitor.
+The bitcoin trade can be conducted between individuals without a middleman.
+You can send money abroad from your Bitcoin savings account.
+You can earn bitcoin by watching videos and playing video games. 

Disadvantages

-A bland and boring design that doesn't promote engagement.
-As the name reveals, this exchange only offers Bitcoin as a digital currency.
-The platform is not available in most states in the USA.
-You can only buy, sell and trade crypto crosses with Bitcoin (BTC) against other cryptocurrencies.
-Local Bitcoin has limited features. 

KYC & Registration

The platform has experienced issues with scammers before hence they do KYC for all their members. Local Bitcoins allow its users to buy and sell Bitcoin through classified advertisements. To use the platform, you need to register for an account by providing the following information:

+Full name.
+Email address.
+Phone number.
+Country of residence.

After the registration process, you will have a Tier 0 Account with a limit of 1,000 Euros per year in trading volume. You will need to provide further identity verification to move to a higher tier and raise your trading limit. LocalBitcoins OY and their holding company (LocalBitcoins Holding Oy), follow money laundering rules in EU and they are registered locally in Finland.

 

Company Account

There aren't any corporate account facilities at present.

 

Leverage

They don't offer any leverage at Local Bitcoins.

 

Costs

▪ Rated at 10/10

Local Bitcoins are free to use and do not incur any charges for buying or selling Bitcoin. Also, the platform does not charge any fee to register for an account.


If you create an advertisement on the platform, you receive a charge of a 1 percent fee on every completed trade. People opt to avoid creating advertisements and respond to existing buy and sell offers to avoid the fee.

In Local Bitcoins, it is free to transfer to the wallets of other members on the platform but the fee to transfer to other Bitcoin wallets varies on the current usage of the Bitcoin blockchain.

 

Deposit Methods

▪ Rated at 10/10
Below you can see a list of the deposit methods available on Local Bitcoins. Some of them may not be available in United States as it depends on regional regulation, but normally the most common payment methods are available across numerous countries.

No other cryptocurrency exchange got as many different deposit methods as Local Bitcoins. We give them a big round of applause for their great work to find so many deposit methods. Read more about the deposit methods at Local Bitcoins here.

 

Platforms

▪ Rated at 8/10

The user interface is like Craigslist, rather dated and gives an old fashioned feeling. However, it has user profiles similar to what you see on eBay. The options listed on the Local Bitcoins platform include the following.

+Buy Bitcoin here, you browse and respond to the advertisements posted by the Bitcoin sellers. These advertisements include the price of the Bitcoin, the accepted payment methods, and the limits.
+Sell Bitcoin here, you can browse and respond to advertisements posted by Bitcoin buyers. The adverts include the price the buyer is willing to pay, their preferred payment method, and their limits.
+Post a Trade here, you can create your advertisement to buy or sell Bitcoin
+Also, the exchange vets its members and investigates its sellers to make the experience better.

However, the design of the page is somewhat outdated and not intuitive. It makes the learning curve slow and hard for an inexperienced user who lacks the guidance of an experienced person. We hope that they get a new design within short.

 

Automated Trading and Copy Trading

As a peer-to-peer site, no autotrade or copy trade features are available here.

 

Languages supported

The following languages are supported on Local Bitcoins:

Chinese, English, French, Portuguese and Russian and Spanish

 

Broker Support

▪ Rated at 7/10

The customer service is limited to emails and frequently asked questions. The platform usually bans scammers or anyone suspected of illegal activity from their network. One needs to be careful of the vendors who lack a track record. Its customer service inadequacy means that it could take longer to resolve disputes. It is up to the escrow service to offer an added level of confidence during transactions.

The company uses a feedback system that shows a score on your public profile. The score shows the amount of positive feedback a user has. One feedback is only allowed to a user. The feedback options are:

Trustworthy
Positive
Neutral
Block
Block without feedback.

The feedback will be visible on the user's profile if it meets certain conditions. If the conditions are not met, the feedback remains unconfirmed. Users that have never used the exchange to trade cannot give feedback, but they can mark if a person is trustworthy or not.

Their support is not really helpful after the new owners took over. They have a local office in Finland (see below), and you can reach them by email. It's one of few crypto exchanges in the world, perhaps the only one, that write out their address publicly:

LocalBitcoins Oy
Porkkalankatu 24
00180 Helsinki
Finland.

 

Other Names for Local Bitcoins

Local Bitcoins is or has also been known under the following names: LocalBitcoins Oy, LocalBitcoins Holding Oy

 

FAQ

Where can I register for Local Bitcoins?

The best way is to open an account here and if you have any further questions you can get in touch with their support directly.

Is it a safe and reliable website?

Yes, it is. The platform has been in operation since 2012 with highly secure features such as the escrow service to ensure transactions are safe.

Which languages are supported by Local Bitcoins?

You can choose between: English, Spanish (espanol), French (francais), Portuguese, Russian and Simplified Chinese as their language options.

Who started the company?

Jeremias Kangas started the platform in June 2012.

What does their security protocol entail?

The platform has an extensive security to trade Bitcoins and protect the transactions. These include:

Escrow services
Reputation ranking
Login protection
Privacy
PIN verification
Dispute resolution

Can you get scammed on the platform?

The platform does not share your information with third-party applications and websites. The company bans anyone participating in illegal activities and has an escrow service that resolves disputes between buyers and sellers.

Is the platform legal?

It is legal in more than 111 countries. However, it is only legal in specific states in the United States, including:

Montana
Kansas
New Jersey
Illinois
Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Wisconsin
Texas
Tennessee
Virginia.

What are the requirements for an advertisement?

You need to set up the following:
+Location
+Currency
+Payment method
+Price
+Limits
+Terms of trade.

Also, you can create up to five advertisements at a go.

8Is the platform regulated?

The platform is regulated by the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) and acts following the Act of Virtual Currency Service Providers.

How long is the payment window?

It takes 90 minutes for the payment window.

Are the payments reversible?

Most online payment methods are reversible. The payment provider can take back a payment even after it arrives in the account. Online wallets such as PayPal have payments reversible for up to 180 days.

 

Instruments available

Find the full list of instruments available to trade at Local Bitcoins here. There is a limited amount of instruments available, but if you are into Bitcoin and want to trade only that - this is a great place to be, since their fees are among the lowest in the industry and you got all possible Bitcoin crosses available. Below are the crypto pairs available:

▪ Rated at 8/10

Crypto Currencies

ADA/BTC, AED/BTC, AOA/BTC, AUD/BTC, BCH/BTC, CAD/BTC, CHF/BTC, CNH/BTC, CNY/BTC, CZK/BTC, DASH/BTC, DKK/BTC, EUR/BTC, GBP/BTC, HKD/BTC, HUF/BTC, IDR/BTC, INR/BTC, JPY/BTC, JPY/BTC, KRW/BTC, MXN/BTC, NZD/BTC, PHP/BTC, PLN/BTC, RUB/BTC, SEK/BTC, SEK/BTC, THB/BTC, USD/BTC, USDC/BTC, USDT/BTC, XLM/BTC, XRP/BTC

Screenshots from Local Bitcoins

Related blockchain? Learn more about Bitcoin Blockchain

Bitcoin Blockchain is the blockchain that Local Bitcoins relates to, so it's worth reading more about it below.

A couple of decades ago, the financial world was taken by storm by the introduction of digital currency. The first of its kind is Bitcoin, which is also the world's most known cryptocurrency and blockchain. Among others like Ethereum, this digital asset operates on a technology known as the blockchain, hence the term Bitcoin Blockchain...

›› Read our full Bitcoin Blockchain review here

Bitcoin is the first major blockchain, consisting of an innovative payment network and a new kind of money.

Read the Local Bitcoins Terms and Conditions here.
Local Bitcoins Review Published: Tuesday, 29 Mar 2022 3:53 pm
Last Updated: Wednesday, 10 May 2023 1:38 pm