Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchange Localbitcoins has reported that 2019 revenue rose 10% to $29.6 million from $27 million a year ago.
For the year, operating income fell 6% to $19.9 million from $21.2 million the year before. Localbitcoins did not provide detail about net profit.
The Finnish marketplace said about $2.8 billion in volume was traded from 15.6 million transactions.
Localbitcoins added 1.46 million new users last year, it stated. But stricter know-your-customer (KYC) requirements implemented in the last half of the year drove away some customers, both new and existing.
During the review period, the P2P exchange noted that the number of active users on the platform totaled 913,000. Chief executive officer Sebastian Sonntag commented:
2019 was an invaluable learning experience for us, as we implemented anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulations…undesired activity was driven away from the platform and the implementation of KYC itself was a challenging process.
Sonntag expects that new users will continue joining the exchange in 2020. So far this year, new daily sign-ups have climbed 50% to 6,000 currently. In January, the figure averaged 4,000.
Localbitcoins has this year given up market share to competitor Paxful. According to data from Useful Tulips, Paxful became the top P2P exchange by trade volume last month, with about $25 million worth of bitcoin traded on the platform every week.
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