Finland-based peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency platform LocalBitcoins is shutting down operations after serving its customers for more than 10 years. LocalBitcoins officially announced termination of services on Feb. 9, citing tough market conditions of the ongoing cryptocurrency winter. “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,” the firm said. LocalBitcoins encouraged all customers to withdraw their crypto assets from the platform, asking to proceed with withdrawing Bitcoin (BTC) from the LocalBitcoins wallet. According to the announcement, users will be able to withdraw …

Despite the turbulence that broke out in the crypto market this summer, there is an important long-term marker that should be considered in any complex assessment — the combination of adoption and regulation. The latest report by EUBlockchain Observatory, named “EU Blockchain Ecosystem Developments,” tries to measure this combination within the European Union, combining the data on each and every member country from Portugal to Slovakia. As the original report counts more than 200 pages, Cointelegraph prepared a summary with the intent to capture the most vital information about the state of crypto and blockchain in Europe. Cointelegraph started from …

Hot on the heels of the rising cryptocurrency hype, Finnish regulators have dropped a formal notice. On Nov. 24th, the Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) stated: “Only registered virtual currency providers can market virtual currencies and related services in Finland. The marketing of virtual currencies in Finnish and in Finland is only allowed for entities registered as virtual currency providers in Finland.” Finland is a highly economically free country, ranking 17th in the Index for Economic Freedom. However, as LocalBitcoins CEO Sebastian Sonntag told Cointelegraph upon receiving their FSA license in 2019: “The controls in the financial sector are of particularly …

Amid the ongoing growth in cryptocurrency adoption worldwide, countries like Indonesia and Chile have seen a significant influx of public interest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), according to new data. According to a Friday report by Australian blockchain education startup Coinformant, Indonesia has been leading the world in crypto interest in 2021. In Coinformant’s report, Indonesia achieved the highest crypto interest score with 5.73 out of 10, beating other counties in a combination of four factors including the number of Google searches, the number of published crypto articles, engagement level increases and crypto ownership. Chile ranked second with a score …

LocalBitcoins, a major peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange, has purportedly managed to significantly cut the amount of criminal funds on its platform in 2020. The P2P platform has seen a decline of over 70% in transactions from darknet markets between September 2019 and May 2020, LocalBitcoins claims. Jukka Blomberg, chief marketing officer at LocalBitcoins, told Cointelegraph that the drop comes in response to Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer regulations adopted by the platform in September 2019. The calculations are based on blockchain analysis by major crypto analytics firm Elliptic as well as LocalBitcoins’ own “clustering tools,” the firm said. The …

Despite local cryptocurrency uncertainty, Russia is strengthening its leadership on major peer-to-peer exchange LocalBitcoins in the share of Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes. Russia has traded the most Bitcoin on LocalBitcoins exchange for two consecutive months, April and May 2020, according to an analysis by crypto media startup CryptoDiffer. Russia trades nearly twice as much BTC on LocalBitcoins as Venezuela and the U.S. According to the data, Russia was responsible for 19% of total BTC trading volumes on LocalBitcoins this May, leaving Venezuela and the United States trailing. LocalBitcoins’ BTC trading in Venezuela and the U.S. reportedly accounted for 11% and …

While some governments are selling Bitcoins (BTC) confiscated through law enforcement actions, Finland is yet to decide what to do with its seized BTC. Finnish Customs, operating under the Ministry of Finance, has reportedly been deliberating about what to do with 1,666 Bitcoins seized from drug criminals years ago. As reported by Finland's national public broadcasting firm on Feb. 25, the Finnish Customs service doesn’t want to auction the confiscated Bitcoin because the cryptocurrency could be returned to the hands of criminals. Price of seized Bitcoins surges since the confiscation According to the report, at the time of the seizure, …

Popular Bitcoin (BTC) exchange platform LocalBitcoins is allegedly suspending user accounts with little fanfare, citing an “enhanced due diligence process.” Finland-based LocalBitcoins, one of major global peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges, has reportedly suspended user accounts in some countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia without warning, with some users being unable to withdraw their Bitcoin, Forbes reports Jan. 25. LocalBitcoins gave no public statement on the matter when the first reports came about a week ago According to the report, the first complaints started coming in last week, with LocalBitcoins users in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, and …

The Finnish Population Register Centre is coordinating a simulated ransomware cyberattack on more than 200 Finnish cities and public organizations. On Nov. 22, Finnish news outlet Yle reported that participating cities and organizations are rehearsing how to respond when a group of hackers demands the participants pay ransomware during a series of simulated cyberattacks. As part of the operation, 235 public organizations were faced with an activist hacker group that threatened to carry out cyberattacks unless it was paid a ransom fee in Bitcoin (BTC) by a certain date. According to the organizers, the aim of the exercise is to …

The Finnish Financial Services Authority (FIN-FSA) has officially registered LocalBitcoins as a virtual currency provider, starting at the beginning of November 2019. Finland only allows officially registered providers who fulfill the legal requirements to operate in the country. A safe pair of hands In order to receive the registration, LocalBitcoins had to prove to the FIN-FSA that it had implemented suitable Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures, along with having adequate safeguarding for customer assets. Management and key personnel also had to fulfill the criteria to be considered fit to serve in the roles. Part of a …

Finnish peer-to-peer crypto exchange LocalBitcoins has warned users about alleged security risks associated with anonymous browser Tor Browser. On Sept. 9, transactional compliance expert Richard Bensberg tweeted a screenshot of a LocalBitcoins banner warning Tor users about the risk of losing their Bitcoins (BTC), which stated: “Warning to all Tor users: A Tor browser exposes you to the risk of having your bitcoins stolen.” LocalBitcoins then responded to Bensberg, saying that while using Tor Browser is not against its terms of service, it does not recommend it for security reasons. LocalBitcoins did not specify why the browser makes users more …

Finland-based cryptocurrency firm Prasos has secured a payment institution license via the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FFSA). The news comes by way of an official announcement via its crypto exchange website on July 12. According to the announcement, Prasos is now the third crypto firm in Europe to secure a payment institution license. According to its website, Prasos operates a crypto exchange, a crypto investment platform, and Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs. Prasos stated that, thanks to its new license, its crypto investment platform Coinmotion is now capable of supporting a payment service in the European Economic Area, which includes EU member …