Russia is the leader in trading volume on the most popular P2P platform LocalBitcoins, it accounts for 26.5 percent. Second place goes to Venezuela (12,2%), the third – USA (11.8 per cent). This is stated in the report OneBlock, based on data from the Coin Dance.
According to OneBlock, the volume of trading on LocalBitcoins can give an idea of the demand for bitcoin in specific countries. Coin Dance LocalBitcoins aggregates data, allowing to conduct this analysis.
In the screenshot below – the 12 most active countries on LocalBitcoins:
It is noteworthy that in most countries, the volume began to rise in 2017, whereas in the US a steady increase was observed from 2013 and the end of 2017. the UK stands out the most dramatic surge and fall of activity, and on the chart of China is likely to impact external factors, such as the ban on trading digital currencies and ICO in the country.
With the end of 2017 in trading volume is the confident leader of Russia (blue line on chart below).
Analysts believe that this situation may change once the country will be legislatively regulated sphere of cryptocurrency, which is expected by the end of 2018. Until the volume on LocalBitcoins are likely to remain high.
Another interesting trend: the emerging economies become increasingly important players in the Bitcoin ecosystem. In July 2013, about 90% of the total trading volume on LoclaBitcoins were in the US, UK and Australia. Over the last 5 years the combined share of these countries fell to 19%.
It should also be noted that the reduction in trading volume on LocalBitcoins does not necessarily indicate a decrease in demand for bitcoin in the country. It can also mean that the trading infrastructure became more developed and people are abandoning P2P platforms in favor of online exchanges.
In this case, if the volume of transactions on LocalBitcoins grow, it is often a good indicator of increasing demand for bitcoin. In rare cases (such as China) it could also mean that the existing infrastructure has suffered from prohibitive measures, and traders switched to the peer-to-peer platform.
Source
