Local Monero Review

What is LocalMonero?

LocalMonero is a crypto exchange based in the British Virgin Islands that launched in 2017. 

At LocalMonero, people from different countries can exchange their local currency to Monero. The site allows users to post ads where they state exchange rate and payment methods for buying or selling Monero. You reply to these ads and agree to transact with the person you have replied to. The seller puts the relevant XMR in an escrow account, and when the parties have transacted and the seller has confirmed payment to LocalMonero, then LocalMonero releases the XMR from the escrow to the buyer. This solution by LocalMonero allows the exchange to safely escrow the cryptos of any user without taking control of it.

In many ways, LocalMonero is like an online store or an Ebay for cryptocurrencies. Investors at the exchange post different “ads”, where they offer a price quote for a specific cryptocurrency. This ad can be for both buying or selling or either one of those actions. If you as another buyer/seller thinks the offer is good, you can just take it.

Different Languages

The site is available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Italian and Portuguese.

US-investors

LocalMonero does not restrict citizens or residents from any jurisdiction from trading at the platform. Accordingly, US-investors are also permitted here.

Unique Things with This Platform

There are a few things with this platform that are unique, or at least quite unusual.

No KYC/AML: This platform does not employ any form of KYC/AML, nor do they “ever plan on doing so”. LocalMonero firmly believes that the very concept of KYC/AML is “completely antithetical to the very idea of a peer-to-peer over-the-counter exchange”, and until there are no more legal ways on planet Earth to avoid implementing KYC/AML they will do everything they legally can to provide their users with a hassle-free experience.

No JavaScript-versions: The team behind this platform has a background in the Monero community. This community is quite privacy focused. A user that fully blocks Google services will be able to use this platform without a problem. The platform is even fully functional without JavaScript, which ensures a level of security and privacy that LocalMonero claims can never be achieved on other platforms that require JavaScript to operate.

Tor and I2P: The platform also has Tor and I2P portals.

LocalMonero Trading View

Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should yourself determine which trading view that suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book or at least part of the order book, a price chart of the chosen crypto and order history. LocalMonero, however, is as mentioned above not really an exchange per se. It is more like an Ebay for cryptos. At this place, you can scan through a number of different sale/purchase ads that have been posted by other users of the platform. You can sort by payment method, location, popularity etc, to find a seller/buyer that you want to transact with. The below is a picture of the list where you can find different offers at LocalMonero:

LocalMonero Fees

LocalMonero Trading fees

Considering the above business model, the distinction between parties on the exchange is not taker and maker, it’s rather more like person advertising and person responding to advertisement. The person doing the advertisement is charged 1.00% fee for every completed trade. The person responding to the advertisement doesn’t have to pay any fees at all to the platform.

If comparing 1.00% to normal trading fees, it is quite high. 0.00%, however (as it is for the person posting the ad) is much lower than the industry average. The industry average is arguably around 0.25% both ways. However, there are dissimilarities between LocalMonero and other normal exchanges somewhat explaining the higher fee.

We recommend investors using LocalMonero to consider themselves whether this fee is fair or not.

LocalMonero Withdrawal fees

This peer-to-peer exchange charges a withdrawal fee amounting to only the network fee + 25% when you withdraw crypto from the platform. This fee is below the industry average and is an advantage against most other exchanges out there.

On the date of last checking the withdrawal fees (21 September 2020), the XMR standard network fee was 0.0000747875 XMR.

Deposit Methods

At this place, you can purchase advertised cryptos through both wire transfer and credit cards. Actually, you can pay through more than 30 different payment methods. For instance, you can purchase crypto through PayPal here. That is not very common on the market, even though there is a clear demand for that payment method. You can also pay in numerous other ways (cash, for instance).

The above can be especially helpful for newer crypto investors. It also makes this exchange an “entry-level exchange”, meaning an exchange where a new crypto investor can enter the market.