Peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin (BTC) marketplace Paxful recently hit an all-fourth dimension-high in weekly traded volume.

As of December. 2, CoinDance data reveals that for the calendar week of Nov. 23, Paxful saw close to $30 million in P2P Bitcoin trades continuing a consequent upwards tendency since the platform'due south inception.

Weekly Paxful Volume (Global), 2022-present

Weekly Paxful Volume (Global), 2022-present. Source: CoinDance

Paxful trumps LocalBitcoins' trend

Paxful is a P2P over-the-counter platform that connects users offering to purchase and sell Bitcoin using souvenir cards, Paypal, domestic bank transfers and other payment methods.

As a decentralized and not-custodial service, Paxful reportedly sees Bitcoin trades denominated in 70 different national fiat currencies and has seen $xx-25 million in trades (weekly) throughout much of 2022.

While Paxful has reported a consequent uptrend since 2022, data from LocalBitcoins.com — a veteran proper name in the P2P crypto trading space — has seen a shakier arc with peak volumes largely reported during the winter 2022 cryptocurrency bull run.

Weekly LocalBitcoins Volume (Global), 2022-present

Weekly LocalBitcoins Book (Global), 2022-present. Source: CoinDance

Despite this, LocalBitcoins' volume remained broadly in the $twoscore-60 million (weekly) range for much of 2022-2019, although the terminal few months have seen a downturn with consistently sub-$40 million levels throughout October and Nov.

As noted, one of Paxful's niche markets is the commutation of retail-branded souvenir cards for Bitcoin: the platform's site reveals that Amazon gift cards are currently the most popular, followed by eBay, Steam and iTunes.

LocalBitcoins' challengers

As reported, LocalBitcoins has seen its market share challenged every bit rival LocalCryptos — formerly LocalEthereum — announced information technology was gear up to add Bitcoin support alongside Ether (ETH).

LocalBitcoins has also come under criticism for its movement to register every bit an official virtual currency provider with regulators in its dwelling house country of Finland, alienating users who hope to transact pseudonymously.

Centralized exchange alternatives and tokenized souvenir cards

As Cointelegraph reported in July, major centralized American cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Coinbase has also entered the crypto souvenir carte market place, allowing customers in certain countries to exchange coins for brand due east-certificates.

In August, Japan'southward largest gift card platform Amaten revealed it would start issuing tokenized souvenir cards in partnership with blockchain network provider Aelf.