LocalTrade

LocalTrade Review

What is LocalTrade?

LocalTrade is one of the cryptocurrency exchanges from the United Kingdom. It has been active since 2017.

LocalTrade Trading Volume

The liquidity situation on LocalTrade has changed quite a bit since we first wrote this review. On the date of last updating this review (21 September 2021), Coinmarketcap listed this platform as an Untracked exchange and there was no information about the trading volumes. Interestingly, CoinGecko claims that the trading volume was approximately USD 463 million with 48 coin listings and 105 token pairs. We're currently exploring what's the cause of the difference between those two data aggregators in relation to LocalTrade.

US-investors

To our knowledge, US-investors can trade here. But, US-investors should – as always – do their own independent assessment of any problems arising from their residency or citizenship.

LocalTrade 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 cryptocurrency and order history. They normally also have buy and sell-boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can ascertain that it feels right to you. The below is a picture of the trading view at LocalTrade:

LocalTrade Fees

LocalTrade Trading fees

Most crypto exchanges charge two different types of trading fees: taker fees and maker fees. The taker is the person who picks up an existing order from the order book. The maker, on the other hand, is the person who creates an order that is not immediately matched against an existing order on the order book. Makers are often rewarded for creating liquidity on the platform by a lower trading fee than takers. Exchanges that do not make a distinction between takers and makers charge what we call “flat fees”. LocalTrade charges 0.00% for both takers and makers.

According to the largest and most recent empirical study on crypto exchange trading fees, the average spot trading taker fee is currently 0.2181% and the average spot trading maker fee is currently 0.178%.

Compared to those average trading fees, LocalTrade's taker and maker fee are below the industry average.

LocalTrade Withdrawal fees

LocalTrade has a percentage based withdrawal fee, meaning that they charge you a percentage of the withdrawn amount when you withdraw. Their percentage charged vary from crypto to crypto, but for BTC, the rate is 0.10% + 0.0001 BTC. This is an unusual withdrawal fee model, but it is not unheard of. Most exchanges have a fixed withdrawal fee, regardless of the size of the withdrawn amount. 

With the fee model that this exchange has, when you withdraw small amounts, it is beneficial to you. If you withdraw 0.01 BTC, the withdrawal fee becomes 0.0001 BTC (quite low). However, if you withdraw 10 BTC, the withdrawal fee becomes 0.1 BTC (extremely high). Please consider whether this withdrawal fee suits your own trading or not.

By charging percentage based withdrawal fee models, the exchange makes up for some of the profit they loose when not charging any trading fees. Overall, we still think these trading fees are quite competitive.

Deposit Methods

This cryptocurrency trading platform offers wire transfer as a deposit method, but you can’t deposit via credit card.