After the National Bank introduced a ban on direct transactions between crypto exchange wallets and bank cards in March 2023, the P2P transaction mechanism became the only option for purchasing cryptocurrency with fiat funds, as well as for withdrawing crypto assets into fiat.
Therefore, the p2p segment attracted a large number of users. Despite the fact that exchanges do not disclose statistics on such transactions, based on indirect data we can conclude that the volume of p2p trading has increased significantly by the fall.
Moreover, many users consider p2p as a source of additional income.. At first glance, this is really “easy money”, because the profitability of such transactions ranges from 0.5% to 1.5%. According to rough estimates, monthly net income can reach 35-45%.
But last week, Privatbank began to massively block cards of users who actively make transfers to cards, regardless of the transaction amount. According to , The National Bank requires banks to fight crypto trading in p2p mode and plans to reduce the market to a minimum in the near future.
decided to conduct an experiment and test the p2p mechanism in action. The author of this material actively traded on the Binance exchange for two months, conducted about 400 transactions there and was even able to earn money, albeit not millions. And in the end I received completely blocked accounts in two banks. I also had to deal with fraud attempts several times. But the experience turned out to be invaluable and gave a lot of food for thought.
What is p2p – in simple words. P2P transactions, also known as peer-to-peer, involve the exchange of currencies (including cryptocurrencies) between individuals. Let's say user A has 100 USDT on hand and wants to exchange it for hryvnia. User B just needs to buy 100 USDT and he has the required amount in hryvnia for this. User B sends hryvnia to user A, user A transfers USDT to user B’s crypto wallet. That's it, the deal is done.
This is a rather simplified understanding of the mechanism, because in real life the exchange does not occur directly. Between the participants in transactions there is always a third party who controls the process and makes sure that there is no fraud (although this does not always work out). Such third parties are exchanges or specialized platforms that provide the technical side of transactions and help resolve controversial situations.
Where do p2p transactions take place? P2P platforms are available on almost all major cryptocurrency exchanges. These are Binance, OKX, Bybit, Gate.io, MEXC, HTX.
Read also: Crypto exchange rating – 2023: how investors can find a balance between security and service quality
There are separate services that specialize only in p2p operations. These are Bitpapa, HodlHodl, Sky Crypto and others. Essentially the same exchanges, but their functionality is limited only to p2p transactions.
The dominant position in this segment, as well as in the cryptocurrency market as a whole, is occupied by Binance. The share of this exchange in the field of p2p trading already exceeds 60%. There is the greatest liquidity, a large selection of currencies and payment instruments (banks, non-bank payment systems).
What is needed for p2p trading? First of all, you need to have a registered and verified account on a crypto exchange. Verification involves transferring to the exchange personal data and copies of documents (passport, driver’s license) that confirm the user’s identity.
Without verification, as a rule, the ability to conduct exchange transactions is limited. Verification is also needed in order to trade on p2p as a maker ( more on this below ).
Verification is quite fast. And if everything is in order with the documents and personal data, within half an hour the account will be approved and ready to use.
In addition, you must have a bank account (card). And not in one bank, but in several. The more cards, the greater the turnover and the more earnings.
If you focus on Binance, the largest number of transactions take place in the accounts of five banks – Privatbank, monobank, A-Bank, FUIB, izibank. You can open accounts and “get” cards in the listed banks remotely, often using verification through “Diya”.
For those banks that do not support authorization through diya, registration will take no more than 2-3 hours. In addition to installing the banking application on your smartphone/tablet, you will need to manually provide the required information ( usually scanned copies of your passport and identification code, as well as a small questionnaire for a new client ). And then wait for the bank to process this data.
In total, it will take less than one day to prepare everything for launching your small p2p business.
How to start trading? All kinds of crypto consultants and bloggers tell you that you can make money on p2p from the very first minute. Actually this is not true.
New accounts receive the status of “taker” on the p2p market ( from English. words take – to take). This is a user who buys and sells currency at the rate set by other sellers. To make it easier to understand, a person who goes to a bank and buys regular dollars, and then sells the same dollars in another bank, is also a taker.
The taker always buys currency (and cryptocurrency) at a higher price and sells it at a lower price. Accordingly, under such conditions he earns nothing. And all because the taker cannot create his own advertisements for the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, which means he cannot set his own rate.
For example, for a taker, the deal conditions will look like this ( see. screenshots). For example, on November 15, you can buy 1 USDT in the range of 38.85-39 UAH, and sell 1 USDT at 38.41-38.32 UAH. Negative spread (difference between rates) reaches 1.8%. This is how much the taker loses on each purchase and sale.
Makers make money from p2p. words make – create, form). They, roughly speaking, “make the market”. The maker can create advertisements for both the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, independently determines the purchase and sale price and regulates his earnings. And for the maker, the trading terminal looks diametrically opposite to what the taker sees.
Advertisements for the sale of cryptocurrency placed by the maker fall into the “Buy” section, and advertisements for purchase – into the “Sell” section.. To put it very simply, the maker always buys cryptocurrency from takers cheaper than he sells it to them. This is actually how he makes money.
How to start earning money? Exchanges set certain criteria that must be met to obtain maker status. Specifically for Binance, user makers must meet all of the following requirements:
account age – 30 days or more; successful account verification; number of executed p2p orders – 20 or more; the share of executed p2p orders within 30 days is at least 80%; number of different users with whom transactions were concluded – from 10 or more.
Therefore, to become a maker, after registering an account you will first have to trade as a taker. Yes, it will be trading at a loss. But large sums are not required. You can start with a deposit of 4-8 thousand. UAH (this is the equivalent of 100-200 USDT) and on this volume “wind up” the necessary indicators.
After receiving maker status, you should especially carefully monitor the statistics. Because the reputation of the seller directly affects the trading volume and his earnings.
It is especially important to pay attention not so much to the number of transactions, but to the percentage of their completion (the closer to 100%, the better) and feedback from users (similarly: the more positive reviews, the better).
Practice has shown that the best statistics are for those makers who:
carry out transactions as quickly as possible, in 2-3 minutes; politely chat with counterparties and answer questions; trade regularly, not occasionally.
Here, for example, is how you managed to “pump up” your account in just a couple of months. And these are, without exaggeration, very good results: 100% of completed applications and not a single negative review.
Experienced makers who have a large trading volume (tens of thousands of USDT per month) can obtain merchant status. This is a seller with a star and deserves special trust.. The main advantage of a merchant is lower trading commissions, they can reach 0%.
What is the profitability of p2p trading? As mentioned above, the maker’s earnings are the spread, the difference between the buying and selling rates. It may seem that everything is extremely simple: you set the buying rate to 35 UAH/USDT, and the selling rate to 40 UAH/USDT, the spread is 14%.
But competition in the market and its high liquidity smooth out the rate gap, as a result of which the real spread averages 0.7-0.8%. At some points it can narrow to 0.5% (usually this happens during the day), and closer to the night, when activity drops, the spread widens to 1.5-1.7%.
The spread also depends on the bank whose cards the parties use for mutual settlements for p2p. For Privatbank the spread is the most impressive, about 1.3-1.5%. For monobank the spread is quite narrow, within 0.5-0.7%. According to A-Bank, FUIB, izibank the spread is 0.8-1%.
In general, Binance offers six cryptocurrencies for p2p trading: USDT, BTC, FDUSD, BNB, ETH, BUSD. But the main turnover (and, consequently, liquidity) is concentrated in the USDT segment. Tether is the most popular stablecoin, in fact it is a digital dollar.
Its rate, unlike the same Bitcoin, is not subject to fluctuations, and the entire volume traded on exchanges is backed by the dollar. This is why USDT is popular among traders who transfer fiat currency into it, and then go to the spot market and buy other types of cryptocurrencies with USDT.
In addition, it is no secret that USDT is quite widely used for anonymous mutual settlements between individuals.
How much can you really earn? You can go to p2p with a meager starting capital, even with 100 USDT. This is the minimum amount for which a maker can open an order (create an ad). But if we take the average spread at 1% (without deducting commissions), then in one circle 100 USDT ( a circle is the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency ) will bring 1 USDT of “dirty” income.
In addition, the maker pays the exchange (Binance) a 0.1% commission for each transaction. This means that the net earnings from the circle, minus commissions, will already be 0.8%. And in order to earn at least 10 “bucks” per day with a deposit of 100 USDT, you need to make 10-12 circles.
In our specific case, the basic capital was equal to UAH 15,000. Based on the current tezer rate, this is about 390 USDT.
Total that we managed to earn in two months of p2p transactions:
Net profit for the first month (the whole of September) amounted to about 4,000 UAH. The increase in the initial deposit is 27%. The average spread fluctuated between 0.6-1%. At the end of the month, all the profit received was withdrawn, and the second month of trading started with the same 15,000 UAH. net profit for the second month (three weeks of October and one week of November) reached UAH 7,000. The increase in the initial deposit is 47%. The average spread stretched to 1.2-1.5%. The reason is that the dispersion of the exchange rate in the market has increased. In addition, each day the last round (buying USDT and selling) occurred at night, when the spread is at its maximum.
Let us also clarify that in the first month, trading activity was about 1-2 rounds daily. That is, first there was a purchase of USDT for the entire amount, and then a sale. And so a couple of times a day. In the second month, trading activity increased to 3-4 circles per day, which brought in earnings almost twice as high as in the first month.
Conclusion: you need to trade on an ongoing basis. Otherwise, your earnings will be pitiful. And ideally, it is better to enter the p2p segment with a starting capital of at least 1000 USDT. Then even scrolling this amount 3-4 times a day, you can put about 1500 UAH in your pocket. This is already 45-46 thousand UAH per month. Not millions, but as additional income – quite good.
Another question is that the larger the volumes, the narrower the spread will be. Makers who work on p2p with large sums are disrupting the exchange rate. And it turns out to be a double-edged sword. If you trade with a deposit of 500 USDT, then the spread reaches 1.5%. If capital grows several times, the spread narrows by two or even three times.
It would seem that this problem can be solved: we increase the capital to several thousand USDT and, due to large turnover, increase our profit. But here, everything depends on restrictions on the part of banks and financial monitoring requirements.
How do banks block p2p accounts? Here we come to the main thing – that banks are extremely suspicious of p2p transfers. After all, informal business activities, the sale of goods and services, are often hidden behind payments between individuals from card to card.. This is income from which the state budget receives less taxes.
Although the issue of taxation of cryptocurrency has not yet been resolved – deputies have just registered a corresponding bill in the Rada – transactions with digital (virtual) assets are recognized as high-risk.
Consequently, when there is an active purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, an indirect sign of which is a large number of p2p transactions on an individual’s card, the bank, at best, temporarily blocks the account, and at worst, completely breaks off the relationship with the client.
And this is not fiction. Of the five banks whose cards made payments for cryptocurrency exchanges during these two months, two eventually completely blocked all accounts.
The first was Izibank, which refused service after literally five transactions via p2p. Following him, a couple of weeks later, a similar decision was made by Privatbank, an account in which, by the way, the author had opened for more than 10 years, along with several deposits for a decent amount.
There is no clear justification why the bank refuses a client. The support service sends a letter with links to legislation on financial monitoring and with frightening wording that the client’s operations are associated with an “unacceptably high level of risk” and the bank was unable to obtain documentary support for these operations.
To be fair, we note that Izibank did request documents for transactions related to p2p. But the bank employees were not satisfied with the data from Binance, which display the purchase and sale of cryptocurrency, and receipts with a “wet” stamp on transfers between cards.
Privatbank completely refused any dialogue. To any question with a proposal to resolve the situation, Privat gives only one answer: the decision to close accounts is final and not subject to discussion.
After breaking the relationship with the bank, the money, fortunately, does not disappear. You must have an account with another financial institution to which the funds will be transferred. But the offended bank still puts the client on a kind of “black list”. And it is impossible to open accounts there in the future.
Why don't banks adhere to their own rules regarding p2p? Each bank has limits on p2p transactions. In theory, if you fit into them, there should be no problems.
Privatbank, for example, allows 200 outgoing transfers from card to card per month for a total amount of UAH 3.2 million, and the same number of incoming p2p payments for a similar amount. Total, 400 transfers monthly with a turnover of UAH 6.4 million. Monobank allows up to 50 p2p transactions per day and limits the amount of one payment from card to card to UAH 60,000. There is no general limit on p2p per month. FUIB does not limit the number of transactions per month, but the total amount of p2p payments should not exceed UAH 300,000.
Well, all banks without exception warn: if a transaction exceeds UAH 400,000, it falls under mandatory financial monitoring. The bank also reserves the right to suspend any transaction and request supporting documents.
At the same time, all respondents At the account opening stage, banks assured that screenshots of transactions from crypto exchanges are a sufficient argument for the transaction to be unblocked. But practice has shown that all these limits, de facto, do not work. For example, on the Izibank card the total amount of p2p transactions did not even reach UAH 50,000. The turnover on Privatbank cards was also far within the required number of transactions and the limit of UAH 3.2 million.
It looks like banks are simply playing it safe and don’t want to have problems with the NBU for violating financial monitoring rules. It’s easier for them to refuse clients than to pay millions in fines.
So is it worth the candle or not? P2P transactions with cryptocurrency really provide an opportunity to earn money. This can be a source of both additional and permanent income.
In principle, if the daily turnover (purchase and sale in total) is at least at the level of 200,000 UAH in equivalent, about 30,000 UAH will end up in your pocket every month. If the turnover is twice as high, then the earnings will be 55-60 thousand. UAH
But banks become a stumbling block that kills the entire attractiveness of p2p trading. In theory, of course, you can split transactions into different accounts. And it really is smarter to do this. Cards will last longer. However, a lockdown is likely inevitable. And it will happen unpredictably. Even if all limits and other conditions related to p2p transactions are met.
Someone is trying to get around the restrictions by purchasing cards issued to third parties. Such “dead souls” through which operations take place. But sooner or later such accounts also get blocked.
Plus, banks are not asleep and require users of “phantom” cards to undergo additional verification. For example, take a selfie together with the card and the document of the person for whom it is issued.
According to sources at the NBU, the situation for fans of cryptocurrencies will clearly worsen. The state is actively trying to crush this market under regulatory requirements, and we are not just talking about the p2p segment. All other transactions with digital assets will also fall under the watchful eye of the NBU, the State Financial Monitoring Service and the State Tax Service.