In May 2024, LocalMonero announced it would close. The platform that had operated since 2017 — offering peer-to-peer Monero trades without a centralised intermediary — gave users a few weeks to complete open trades and then shut down permanently. The closure was attributed to an increasingly difficult regulatory environment and the practical difficulty of operating a P2P marketplace involving Monero in jurisdictions with aggressive financial surveillance requirements.
What LocalMonero was good at
LocalMonero was a peer-to-peer marketplace. Buyers and sellers found each other on the platform, agreed on a price and payment method, and conducted the trade through its escrow service. Payment methods included bank transfer, cash by mail, cash in person, gift cards, PayPal, and Revolut. A motivated buyer could acquire Monero without touching a centralised exchange at any step. That flexibility cannot be fully replicated.
Non-custodial instant exchanges
The most practical replacement for most LocalMonero use cases is a non-custodial swap service. These platforms take one cryptocurrency and return another. You send Bitcoin, USDT, ETH, or any of hundreds of other assets — you receive Monero. No account. No KYC. No waiting for a counterparty. The tradeoff: you need to already hold some cryptocurrency to start. The advantage: it is faster, simpler, and available at any time.
Terce handles Monero swaps in all directions without requiring an account or identity verification. The rate is calculated from live market data and locked at confirmation. Settlement takes two to five minutes.
Haveno
Haveno is a decentralised exchange built specifically for Monero, developed as a fork of the Bisq codebase. Unlike Bisq, Haveno uses Monero itself as the base currency. It is genuinely decentralised — there is no company to shut down. Trades happen peer-to-peer with on-chain Monero multisig escrow. Practical limitations: requires running a full node or connecting to a trusted remote node, the interface is technical, and liquidity is thinner. Best suited for technically capable users who prioritise absolute decentralisation.
What cannot be replaced
The cash option is effectively gone for most people. LocalMonero allowed someone to meet a counterparty with cash and acquire Monero directly. That kind of trade still happens between individuals who find each other through privacy-focused communities, but there is no infrastructure supporting it at scale anymore. For most people who used LocalMonero because they wanted Monero without KYC: if you hold Bitcoin and want Monero, a non-custodial swap takes about three minutes.