Paxful a Peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin (BTC) marketplace is set to surpass LocalBitcoins in trading volume. This is seen by their recent all-time high in weekly trading volume. LocalBitcoins is the current top P2P market.

Data on CoinDance reveals that in the week of November 23rd, Paxful saw close to $30 million in Bitcoin trades between users. Continuing its upward trend which has been rising since the inception of the platform.

Weekly Paxful Volume, 2015 to present globally. Source: CoinDance



Paxful surpasses LocalBitcoins’ trend

Paxful which is a P2P platform that connects users offering to buy and sell Bitcoin over the counter (OTC) using Paypal, domestic bank transfers and gift cards among other payment methods.

As a non-custodial and decentralized service, Paxful reportedly sees Bitcoin trades surpassing $20-25 million in trades (weekly) throughout much of 2019. These trades were carried out in 70 different fiat currencies.

While Paxful has reported a consistent trading volume uptrend since 2015, LocalBitcoins which is a veteran name in the P2P crypto trading space has seen a different volume trend. With LocalBitcoins’ volumes peaking during the cryptocurrency bull run of winter 2017.

Weekly LocalBitcoins Volume (Global), 2013-present. Source: CoinDance

Despite Paxful’s rise, LocalBitcoins’ trading volume remained broadly in the $40-60 million (weekly) range for much of 2018-2019. Throughout the last few months LocalBitcoins have seen a downturn with trading volume levels consistently below $40 million during October and November.

A big part of Paxful’s steady growth is due to their exchange of gift cards for retail brands in exchange for Bitcoin. Paxful’s site reveals that currently Amazon gift cards are the most popular. Followed by gift cards for eBay, Steam and iTunes.

P2P alternative marketplaces and gift cards

Coinbase a major centralized American cryptocurrency wallet and exchange has also entered the cryptocurrency gift card market. Since then they have enabled customers in certain jurisdictions to exchange brand e-certificates or gift cards for supported coins.

