LocalBitcoins.com was created as an easy way for anyone to have access to Bitcoin in 2012 by Jeremias Kangas, who was convinced of Bitcoin’s importance in a global economy. Together with his brother, Nikolaus Kangas, they saw the peer-to-peer marketplace grow to over 100 000 active users already within its first years of operation. During 2017, LocalBitcoins entered a phase of exponential growth in trade volume, followed by an increase of nearly 300% in staff size.
Along the years, the company founders consolidated a reliable and accessible platform to better serve a steadily expanding user base around the globe. Presently, LocalBitcoins reached a new stage, having earned its position as the main reference in Bitcoin peer-to-peer trading in the world and counting with approximately half a million active users every month. In order to respond to the new challenges of a well-established company and of the changing Bitcoin industry, Nikolaus, former LocalBitcoins’ CEO, has moved into the company board along with Jeremias.
We are therefore pleased to announce that Sebastian Sonntag has started as LocalBitcoins’ CEO on the 2nd of September, assuming the lead in the company’s operations and the bridging function between the strategic and executive level. A tech expert with several years of experience in leadership in the IT industry, Sebastian aims to maintain LocalBitcoins as a place where “our customers are able to enjoy trading bitcoins now and in the unforeseeable future” while promoting “Bitcoin’s role in financial inclusion and individual’s economic autonomy”