LocalBitcoins Exchange will suspend its services in Florida, Connecticut, Utah, Arkansas, Nevada, Nebraska, Mississippi, Iowa, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kentucky and Vermont.
However, the platform will maintain its services in the states of Illinois, Kansas, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Users will have two weeks after 26 January to complete their transactions. This is an announcement in its official statement. The news was originally posted on Reddit on 12 January and later corroborated by the platform itself, according to beincrypto.
The company has apologised to its users for the inconvenience caused via Twitter, but has yet to release an official statement stating the reason for the suspension in those states.
Possible reasons for the suspension
As Beincrypto reports, the suspension is due to recent news about the latest move by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. (SEC) to charge Ripple ( XRP ) with trading and selling unregistered securities.
The pending case has since put cryptocurrency exchanges on edge and many have decided to delist to avoid potential repercussions with the SEC.
LocalBitcoins is a startup launched in 2012 and based in Helsinki, Finland. It facilitates online peer-to-peer exchanges of bitcoin for local currency and ethereum, XRP and litecoin.
