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Very weird and surprising to hear, the company had been making very nice profits for years[1]. Looks like they went from 59 -> 134 employees between 2020 and 2021. They started requiring KYC from everyone trading on the platform fairly recently, maybe it had bigger effects than they anticipated? I can see why people wouldn't be too keen on KYC in a platform for peer to peer trading.

1: https://vainu.io/company/localbitcoins-oy-taloustiedot-ja-li...

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My guess is all the companies dealing in crypto that aren't properly licensed and aren't well connected politically are going to be in legal trouble soon. Makes sense for them to quit while they're still up, the business model has no way of standing long term. Probably smarter to take their money and just buy Coinbase stock or something like that.

The fact that they introduced KYC speaks for itself, because what's the point of using localbitcoin when you need to go through KYC? The whole idea was that it's anonymous p2p trade. If they require KYC too, users might as well go to one of the proper exchanges and get a better deal. Plus all the other services like staking or NFT markets on top.

That's why you meet them in person: Have a chat, over some tea, get to know them. Then you KYC, and trade.

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