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What is P2P crypto trading?
Peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto means a transfer or trade made directly between two people, wallet to wallet, without an exchange or other service provider in the middle. Exchanges also use the name for marketplaces where their users trade with each other through the exchange.
What it means for you
With no provider in the middle, nobody can reverse a payment or step in if the other side does not deliver. Paying first and waiting for coins, or sending coins before money arrives, is how most P2P trades go wrong.
How it works
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets international anti-money-laundering standards, defines peer-to-peer transactions as virtual asset transfers conducted without the use or involvement of a virtual asset service provider, for example between two unhosted wallets whose users act on their own behalf. Its standards place obligations on intermediaries rather than individuals, so such transfers fall outside those controls, and FATF says they can pose specific money-laundering risks. By that definition, an exchange's own P2P marketplace is not peer-to-peer, because the exchange is involved.
Source: FATF: Updated Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Assets and VASPs (2021) · checked 5 October 2026
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