In the early days before the existence of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) marketplaces, buying or selling cryptocurrencies was a tedious task. The first challenge when handling a transaction was finding a way to convert FIAT into cryptocurrency. The next challenge was ensuring that the transaction was secure, and that the buyer or seller would not disappear with your tokens or FIAT. You also needed to find a good exchange rate.
In the earlier years of crypto, people mostly used Over-the-Counter (OTC) trades for crypto-fiat exchanges. OTC trades are one of the oldest solutions, but finding a trusted buyer or seller was a big challenge. It was not uncommon for people to get robbed during the trade, be charged a premium, or be forced into some payment methods and channels that might be unfair. On top of all this, it was nearly impossible to efficiently compare your counterparty’s exchange rates with other options in order to select the best deal for yourself.
Huobi P2P
Huobi has since introduced their zero-fee P2P marketplace, which allows users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies with other Huobi users on Huobi Global. The Huobi P2P marketplace offers:
- Verified user identities and reputations
- An escrow process to prevent fraud
- The ability to choose the best rate offer
- Multiple payment methods
Verified identity
To be able to use the P2P market, your Huobi Account must be verified via ID verification and Advanced Facial Recognition. This advanced verification process prevents identity theft and acts as an additional step of KYC.
You can also see the number of past transactions, completed transactions, cancellation time, fund release time, and the verification completed by the advertiser. These are some statistics you can use to gauge if the advertiser is trustworthy enough to carry out your transaction.
Fraud-proof process
The fraud-proof process managed by Huobi also helps to eliminate the possibility that either party will disappear with the other party’s funds:
- Buyer selects a seller (or vice-versa) with their chosen rate, payment method, and reputation.
- Buyer enters the amount they want to buy.
- The selected amount of the seller’s crypto assets are temporarily frozen in their Huobi account.
- Buyer makes a payment transfer via the agreed payment method and selects “I have paid” on the Huobi P2P interface within 20 minutes.
- Seller confirms receipt of funds and selects “I have received funds” on the Huobi P2P interface.
- The frozen crypto assets are then unfrozen and transferred to the buyer’s Huobi Fiat Account within five minutes.
If the buyer does not make payment to the seller, the frozen funds will be unfrozen after the payment time limit (typically 20 minutes) ends or when the buyer cancels the transaction.
Either party in the transaction can also raise a dispute to Huobi and Huobi will be able to step in as a trusted third party to investigate all transactions in order to resolve the dispute.
If the price is right
In the Huobi P2P market, you will be able to choose the rate at which you want to sell your cryptocurrencies. This prevents buyers from low-balling new users and sellers from charging users exorbitant premiums. The free marketplace mechanism allows for effective price competition.
A comprehensive list of advertisers gives users the information they need to pick and choose which advertiser provides the best value for crypto, how much crypto they are able to sell or buy, and which payment options they accept.
Payment methods that suit you
Huobi P2P supports 60 different payment methods and over 20 different FIAT currencies, including NZD, PHP, CNY, TWD, MYR and many more.
This allows you decide how you want to get paid for your cryptocurrency.
