Frequently asked questions

  1. What is LocalMonero?
  2. How do I buy or sell Monero?
  3. How do I activate two-factor authentication?
  4. I have lost my second authentication factor, what should I do?
  5. Do you guys have a .onion site / Tor hidden service?
  6. Do you guys have an I2P site?
  7. Do you have an affiliate program?
  8. How am I protected from being scammed?
  9. What should I know about high-risk payment methods?
  10. What’s the difference between an online trade and a local trade?
  11. How do I send Monero and how can I pay with Monero after buying them?
  12. How do I receive Monero to my LocalMonero Wallet?
  13. How can I withdraw Monero to another cryptocurrency wallet from my LocalMonero wallet?
  14. How long does it take to send or receive Monero to my LocalMonero Wallet?
  15. I've waited 60 minutes and my transaction is still pending, now what?
  16. How does the feedback system work?
  17. What is the difference between confirmed and unconfirmed feedback?
  18. How do I enable web notifications?
  19. Do you have a mobile app? / How can I receive mobile notifications?
  20. A trader is asking me for my ID, and I don't feel comfortable.
  21. I've paid the seller but I haven't received my Monero yet.
  22. Why can't I send all the Monero that are in my wallet?
  23. I made a transaction from LocalMonero and it is not showing on the receiving end!
  24. I've made my payment, but I forgot to press the I have paid button or I did not press it in time.
  25. How are disputes going to be handled?
  26. I sent Monero to the wrong address, can I get them back?
  27. How often are advertisement prices updated?
  28. What is a floating price?
  29. What are the fees?

What is LocalMonero?

LocalMonero is a peer-to-peer Monero trading platform. We are a marketplace where users can buy and sell Monero to and from each other. Users, called traders, create advertisements with the price and the payment method they want to offer. You can browse our website for trade advertisements and search for a payment method you prefer. You will find traders buying and selling Monero online for more than 60 different payment methods. If you're new to LocalMonero and want to buy Monero, please take a look at our how to buy guide to learn how to buy Monero.

How do I buy or sell Monero?

You can check our buying and selling guides to get started with trading Monero.

How do I activate two-factor authentication?

I have lost my second authentication factor, what should I do?

If you have your backup code, use a QR generating service such as this to generate the QR from your backup code. Then scan the generated QR with your mobile 2FA app. If you don't have your backup code, it means that you've lost access to your account. Unfortunately, it's impossible for us to be able to differentiate between a hacker pretending to be you and you actually being you.

Do you guys have a .onion site / Tor hidden service?

Yes, we do! Here it is: nehdddktmhvqklsnkjqcbpmb63htee2iznpcbs5tgzctipxykpj6yrid.onion (you need Tor to open this link).

Do you guys have an I2P site?

Yes, we actually have two! Here they are: lm.i2p or yeyar743vuwmm6fpgf3x6bzmj7fxb5uxhuoxx4ea76wqssdi4f3q.b32.i2p (you need I2P to open these links).

Do you have an affiliate program?

Yup! Check it out here.

How am I protected from being scammed?

All online trades are protected by arbitration bonds. When a trade is started an amount of Monero equal to the amount of the trade is automatically reserved from the seller's LocalMonero bond wallet. This means that if the seller runs away with your money and does not finalize the trade, LocalMonero support can direct the the Monero held in the arbitration bond to you. If you're selling Monero, never finalize the trade before you know that you have received money from the Monero buyer. Please note that local trades do not have arbitration bond protection enabled by default.

What should I know about high-risk payment methods?

Even if you do your due diligence and only trade with reputable users there is no guarantee you'll not end up in a dispute situation. Here's something you can do to increase your chances:
1. Request 2 photo ID scans of the user (i.e. passport and driver's license), make sure that the account name matches the ID.
2. Tell the user to send you an email from the email account (maybe even tell them to put the Trade ID and something about the trade into the email).
3. Charge very high premiums for trades. For example, 25% and higher. That way you get covered if 1 in 5 of your trades are scams (given equal trade amounts).
4. Be wary of high trade amounts. Try to get a few lower amount trades with a trader first.

What’s the difference between an online trade and a local trade?

We have two different types of trades on LocalMonero, local trades and online trades. Online trades occur online entirely through our trading platform without you ever meeting your trading partner. Arbitration bond protection is automatically enabled and funded for Online trades, meaning that as a buyer you’re automatically protected by our arbitration bond protection system. Most of trades on LocalMonero are online trades. Local trades are meant to be carried out face-to-face, and arbitration bond protection is not automatically enabled. Because of this it is not safe to pay the seller using an online payment method in a local trade. Online payment methods are, for example, bank transfers; PayPal; Gift card codes etc.

How do I send Monero and how can I pay with Monero after buying them?

If you purchase Monero using LocalMonero, the Monero will be sent to your provided Monero settlement wallet. From there you can send it wherever you wish. If you want to sell Monero, you first need to deposit XMR to your LocalMonero Monero wallet.

How do I receive Monero to my LocalMonero Wallet?

In order to sell Monero on LocalMonero you'll first need to send some Monero for the arbitration bond to your LocalMonero wallet. To do that you'll need a LocalMonero account, access to Monero in another Monero wallet and you need to know your LocalMonero receiving address. To find your LocalMonero receiving address you need to go to visit the wallet page. The top of the page is divided in three parts allowing you to both send, receive Monero and view your transactions. On the 'Receive' tab you'll find your receiving address. Once you know your LocalMonero receiving address, you can go to your other Monero wallet and use this address to send Monero to your LocalMonero address.

How can I withdraw Monero to another cryptocurrency wallet from my LocalMonero wallet?

You can withdraw coins from the LocalMonero wallet to your personal wallet of a cryptocurrency different from the LocalMonero currency. To do so, first you need to tick the "I want to receive another currency" checkbox. Afterwards, select the desired receiving cryptocurrency and type in the address that the coins should be sent to. Then, choose whether you want to provide the amount in either coins sent from your wallet or in the converted coins received to your destination wallet and type in the quantity. Press "Continue", and you'll be shown the relevant offers fitting your requirements. If the list is empty, try adjusting the amount. The conversion rate will be displayed for each offer, and if it's acceptable, all you need to do is press "Trade", agree to the terms, and a trade for the relevant amount will be automatically created for you. The destination address will be automatically provided to the buyer through trade chat. The rest is handled just like any other trade on LocalMonero - the buyer will send the desired currency to the address you've provided, and upon receiving the coins, you should finalize a trade. That's it!

How long does it take to send or receive Monero to my LocalMonero Wallet?

Transactions take between 10-60 minutes when you're sending Monero to your LocalMonero wallet or when you're sending Monero out from your LocalMonero wallet.

I've waited 60 minutes and my transaction is still pending, now what?

The Monero network might be experiencing congestion, in this case transactions will take much longer to go through. Monero transactions have to be confirmed by the Monero network. When a transaction is made it gets sent into a transaction pool from where it is bundled up into blocks that Monero miners confirm through mining. Blocks get mined on average every two minutes. Once the transaction has been included in a block and has been mined, it has been confirmed once. When the confirmation count of the transaction reaches a certain threshold, currently 10 confirmations, the transaction appears in the receiving wallets. You can read more about confirmations on the Monero wikipedia and you can see the current number of unconfirmed transactions on the Monero network in your wallet.

How does the feedback system work?

LocalMonero uses a feedback system that shows a score on your public profile. This score, a percentage, shows how much positive feedback a user has. You can only give one feedback to a user. The feedback can be one of three types: Positive, Neutral and Negative. Once given, feedback will be visible on a user's public profile if certain conditions are met, otherwise the feedback remains unconfirmed and does not affect the feedback score.

What is the difference between confirmed and unconfirmed feedback?

Feedback that has been given can be either confirmed or unconfirmed. Confirmed feedback is shown on a user's public profile and affects the user's feedback score. For an unconfirmed feedback to become confirmed the total trade volume between the user giving and receiving feedback must be more than 100 USD equivalent.

How do I enable web notifications?

Web notifications allow you to receive pop-up notifications through your browser whenever you get a new notification on LocalMonero. If you're trading and want to know immediately when something happens, enable web notifications from your profile. Flip the switch that says Enable Web notifications and when your browser asks you for permission to show web notifications, press accept. You're now all set and will start receiving web notifications.

Do you have a mobile app? / How can I receive mobile notifications?

Yes we do! If you have Android, you can get it on Google Play, F-Droid, or you can download the .apk directly. For iOS devices, it's available on App Store. You can also receive mobile notifications in Telegram! This guide will take you through the Telegram notifications activation process (it's easy). Our bot will then send you notifications on your LocalMonero events.

A trader is asking me for my ID, and I don't feel comfortable.

Sometimes a trader may ask for your ID. If you're trading for the first time with a trader they may ask you to identify yourself. This is because in certain countries traders are required by local laws to know who their customers are. Most traders explain in the terms of the trade if they require ID verification or not. If you don't wish to give the trader your ID, you can always cancel the trade and search for a trader with less strict requirements. Always send your ID to the seller via the trade chat, our trade chat messages are kept encrypted on our servers and are deleted after 180 days. All photographs sent to the trade chat are also marked with a watermark to prevent misuse of the images.

I've paid the seller but I haven't received my Monero yet.

The sellers usually finalize a trade as soon as they see your payment, which can sometimes take an hour or two. If you've paid but are still waiting there is nothing to worry about, for all online trades are protected by the arbitration bond and the seller cannot run away without losing the bond. If there are any issues with a trade and the seller won't finalize it, you can dispute the trade to have LocalMonero support resolve it. If you are buying or selling Monero online, you can dispute the trade after you have marked the payment completed. A dispute can no longer be started if the trade has been finalized or if it's a local trade without arbitration bond protection enabled. When a trade you're involved in becomes disputed, you'll receive an email. A disputed trade is usually resolved within 24-48 hours.

Why can't I send all the Monero that are in my wallet?

We reserve a small amount of Monero from your wallet balance to pay the Monero transaction fee to the Monero network. Each Monero transaction has to pay a small fee to the network to be confirmed no matter from where it's sent. We reserve this fee in advance to prevent your wallet balance from becoming negative.

I made a transaction from LocalMonero and it is not showing on the receiving end!

Transactions take between 10-60 minutes when you're sending Monero to your LocalMonero wallet or when you're sending Monero out from your LocalMonero wallet.

I've made my payment, but I forgot to press the I have paid button or I did not press it in time.

This answer concerns the case when you are buying Monero online. After you send in a trade request to the seller of Monero, you have a time window to complete the payment before the seller is able to cancel the trade (the payment window varies depending on the payment method of the trade). During this time you need to complete your payment and press the I have paid button. The seller is notified that you've made the payment and the Monero will be held in the bond until the seller finalizes the trade for you when seeing the payment in his/her account. If you paid for the purchase, but did not mark the payment complete before the payment time window expired, please contact the seller through the trade. You can contact the seller and your other existing trade contacts from the Dashboard in your LocalMonero User Profile. Send a message to the seller and kindly explain the situation and why you couldn't complete payment within the time window. If the seller does not respond to this request please contact LocalMonero support using the support request form and mention your trade ID.

How are disputes going to be handled?

When the buyer or seller initiate a dispute, an admin steps into the trade chat and asks both parties for evidence and takes into account chat history and reputation to make as fair of a decision as possible.

I sent Monero to the wrong address, can I get them back?

Monero transactions are irreversible, once you’ve sent money to another Monero address it is not possible for you or LocalMonero to reverse it.

How often are advertisement prices updated?

Advertisement prices are based on Monero exchange rates. The Monero exchange rate is volatile and may change rapidly. LocalMonero updates its exchange rates and advertisement prices every ten minutes. Prices shown in the listings and on the front page are cached, and update a little slower. Sometimes when the Monero price is fluctuating rapidly, advertisements with the same price equation may display different price. Sometimes market data is not available for some currencies, which leads to delays updating the advertisement prices. However, when you open up the advertisement page itself the price will be more up to date. The price of the purchase is determined at the moment the Monero buyer sends in the trade request.

What is a floating price?

When the price is floating, the purchased Monero amount fluctuates with the Monero exchange rate. The traded Monero amount is determined when the trade is closed, instead of when the trade is opened. This reduces market rate risks in local cash transactions where the time between opening the trade and closing the trade can be several days.

What are the fees?

You can check all the info on the current fees on our fees page