P2P cryptocurrency exchanges. The best way to exchange altcoins

While gold fever is shaking crypto markets, the question of where to buy crypto and to exchange coins is still relevant.

One can do this with Bitcoin ATMs, gift cards, exchange websites, online wallets and exchanges. The exchanges is the cheapest way of buying cryptocurrency, especially if they work on P2P principle (peer-to-peer or person-to-person).

Unlike usual exchanges like Bitfinex or EXMO, P2P services are fully decentralized and do not act as financial intermediaries. At P2P exchange you negotiate directly with the other coin or fiat holders. The P2P exchange process has some advantages — you have no need to fund your account at the exchange and to disclose personal details, the registration process takes less time and fees usually do not exceed 1%. With P2P exchanges one can purchase big amounts of coins at a better rate than at the normal exchange and can make a purchase with any currency he likes.

On the other hand, the exchange process can take more time than usual: the speed of exchange depends on liquidity. Also P2P exchanges have less functionality than centralized exchanges: there are less trading tools there, for example it is not possible to use the leverage. There are some P2P projects that offer margin trading with crypto, still their functionality is not targeted to crypto exchange. The other type of projects is P2P lending platforms where one can exchange cryptocurrencies only for specific purpose.

The most well-known P2P exchanges for buying cryptocurrency are Localbitcoins and Bitcoin.de. As you can see from the name, both of them work on Bitcoin blockchain, although Localbitcoins can accept other altcoins.

Localbitcoins is the biggest and the oldest P2P exchange where you can exchange any money to Bitcoins, for example USD, Ether, Yandex money or cash. The service secures the transactions and allows to deposit Bitcoins till the payment confirmation made. The fee for the service is 1% from the amount. It’s obvious that the exchange does not bear responsibility for local transactions with cash.

Bitcoin.de is the biggest trading cryptocurrency service in Eurozone. It is convenient to exchange Bitcoins and other Bitcoin forks to Euro. The exchange is notable for its high liquidity and fast transactions.

As for P2P exchanges on Ethereum blockchain, there are no big exchanges with no intermediaries for Ether tokens yet. In August 0x protocol was launched. 0x works partially on P2P principle. Airswap project will launch its ICO soon. Airswap exchange will make it possible to exchange ERC20 tokens. The problem is partially solved with P2P lending services where one can issue a loan in tokens and to get a repayment in fiat. For example, the international P2P lending platform SOFIN allows to issue loans with ERC20 based SOFIN tokens and to get money back with the same tokens or in fiat. The service is integrated with Everex payment system for gateway conversions from crypto to fiat currency. Everex works with any altcoins, so it is possible that soon SOFIN platform will deal with the loans in cryptocurrency, not only with the loans in its own tokens.

Feel free to ask any questions in SOFIN Telegram chat:https://t.me/sofin