P2P Exchange: Euros ↔ Crypto With a Stranger — What It Costs and What Can Go Wrong

P2P (peer-to-peer — person to person) exchange means there is no exchange sitting between you and the other person. One side sends euros by bank transfer or hands over cash, the other sends crypto to a wallet. Nobody holds the money in escrow, and nobody gives it back if something goes wrong.

People choose it for four reasons, and it's worth naming them honestly:

• Feels faster. No need to register on an exchange and wait for identity verification.
• Feels cheaper. The listing advertises a "good rate."
• Need cash. Exchanges do not give out cash.
• Do not want anyone to see. This is the one reason this lesson will not help with, and it explains why.

How a P2P deal happens, and who takes the risk

Every P2P deal has a moment when one person has already handed over their part and the other has not yet. Whoever sends first takes on all the risk.

An exchange solves this problem itself: you buy from it, not from a person, and it holds a licence, capital, and liability. In P2P, that role is filled only by trust in a stranger and their Telegram profile.

What it actually costs

A P2P listing does not state a fee. It is hidden in the rate: the seller asks for more than the exchange price, the buyer offers less. The difference is your fee.

Exchange fees checked 2026-09. The P2P figure is an example, not an average. Rates in groups can be better or worse, so you need to check it yourself in the same minute (see the practice task at the end).

Important about one popular route: as of 2026-07-01, Binance no longer provides crypto-asset services in the EU (more in lesson 1-10). So Binance P2P and its escrow are no longer an option for someone living in Lithuania.

Five schemes that keep repeating in groups

1. A faked transfer receipt

The buyer sends a screenshot saying "money sent" and rushes you: "I already transferred it, send the USDTUSDTTether USD stablecoin. An alternative to USDC. Liquidity on Solana has historically been smaller — most Solana DeFi liquidity is still in USDC.Read the lesson →." The screenshot takes seconds to fake. A receipt is not money. Money only exists once you see it credited in your own banking app.

2. "You send first"

The scammer has an explanation for why you specifically have to send first: "my bank is blocking it," "I've been here for ages, everyone knows me," "half now, half after." Then they vanish. Group "reputation" and screenshots of past deals get faked too.

3. Triangulation fraud — the most dangerous scheme for a seller

This is a scheme where you receive real money and still end up losing.

Real euros land in your account, just not from the person you were talking to. Once the victim realises they were defrauded, the bank can return the money to them out of your account, review or freeze your account, and the police can ask why someone else's money is passing through you. The USDTUSDTTether USD stablecoin. An alternative to USDC. Liquidity on Solana has historically been smaller — most Solana DeFi liquidity is still in USDC.Read the lesson → is already with the scammer. Lithuanian police publicly warn about schemes where defrauded people's money is routed through ordinary people's accounts, often coordinated in Telegram groups.

The main tell: the money comes from a name that does not match the person you are talking to. Do not accept a transfer like that. Return it to the sender and cancel the deal.

4. A reversible payment

The buyer pays using a method that can be reversed: PayPal, a card, certain payment apps. A few days later they open a dispute ("item not received"), the money goes back to them, and they keep the crypto too. In a P2P exchange, only accept payment methods the sender cannot unilaterally reverse — and still remember scheme 3.

5. A fake address, fake cash

• The address gets "corrected" mid-conversation ("sorry, here's the right one"), or a different network is specified. USDTUSDTTether USD stablecoin. An alternative to USDC. Liquidity on Solana has historically been smaller — most Solana DeFi liquidity is still in USDC.Read the lesson → exists on several networks, and sending to the wrong one usually means the money does not come back (1-8).
• Meeting in person, you get paid in counterfeit cash — or the other way around: they claim you gave them fake notes and demand a "refund."

Why a bank freezes an account

Banks are required to monitor where money comes from (AMLAMLAnti-Money Laundering — procedures used by banks and exchanges to combat money laundering.Read the lesson → — anti-money-laundering rules). An account that keeps receiving transfers from strangers and sending money out to crypto looks, to the bank, just like a money-mule account — even if you are honest.

• The bank can ask you to explain where the funds came from and provide documents.
• It can temporarily restrict or freeze the account while it investigates. Revolut's crypto terms, for example, explicitly state it can block crypto-related deposits and withdrawals if it suspects an unlawful purpose.
• If the money was stolen (scheme 3), it can be returned to the victim, and your account becomes part of an investigation.

Legalising proceeds of crime (money laundering) is covered by Article 216 of the Lithuanian Criminal Code. An honest person who exchanged their USDTUSDTTether USD stablecoin. An alternative to USDC. Liquidity on Solana has historically been smaller — most Solana DeFi liquidity is still in USDC.Read the lesson → once does not become a criminal. But someone who regularly accepts money from strangers without asking where it comes from risks having to prove, in an investigation, that they did not know.

What the law says: MiCA and licensing

The EU's crypto-asset regulation, MiCAMiCAThe EU crypto-asset regulation (Markets in Crypto-Assets).Read the lesson →, requires a licence (CASP — crypto-asset service provider) from anyone who provides an exchange service professionally, as a business.

• Sold your own crypto once or a few times a year? That is a personal transaction. No licence needed.
• Regularly exchanging for others at a margin, advertising yourself as a trader in groups? That already looks like an exchange service. In Lithuania, crypto-asset services are supervised by the Bank of Lithuania together with FNTT (the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service), and providing such a service without a licence is illegal.

The law does not set an exact threshold for how many deals counts as "already a business." It is assessed as a whole: regularity, margin, whether you are offering the service publicly. If you are the person in the group posting rates every day, this question is about you.

Taxes: P2P is visible too

• Selling crypto for euros is a taxable event, no matter who you sell to — an exchange or a person in a group. Profit is calculated the same way (sale price minus purchase price), and the same annual tax-free allowance and the same rates apply (2-8).
• From 2026, licensed exchanges report your transaction data directly to VMI (the Lithuanian tax authority) under DAC8. A P2P deal between two people does not fall into that report, but the bank transfers you settled with are visible to the bank.
• You need to prove your purchase price. An exchange gives you a transaction statement. From P2P you will only have chat logs and a bank statement, so keep them for every deal: date, amount in euros, amount of crypto, rate, the other person.

Cheaper and safer routes

All of these exchanges require identity verification. That is an EU rule, not their whim, and it is exactly what protects you from scheme 3: the exchange knows who is on the other side of the deal.

If you still exchange through a person: the rules

1. 1

   Money is only what you see in your bank

   Not a receipt, not a screenshot, not "already sent." Open your banking app and confirm the amount is credited.

2. 2

   The name has to match

   The sender name on the bank statement must match the person you are talking to. If it does not match, do not use the money: return it to the sender and cancel the deal.

   This is the only reliable sign of triangulation fraud.

3. 3

   Only irreversible payments

   No PayPal, no card payments. Only a bank transfer from the sender account in their name, or cash in person.

4. 4

   First deal, small amount

   New person, new scheme? Start with an amount you would not mind losing, and only increase from there.

5. 5

   Verify the address and network twice

   Copy the address, compare the start and end, confirm the network (e.g. USDT on Tron or Ethereum). If the address "changed" mid-message, stop.

6. 6

   Keep the entire chat log

   Screenshots with the rate, amount, address, and the bank statement. You will need it for taxes, and if the bank asks about the source of funds.

7. 7

   Never lend out your account

   "Accept a transfer for me, I will give you USDT" is a classic money-mule recruitment line. Refuse.

Template: my P2P rules

Maximum amount per deal with a new person: ____ EUR
I only accept: a bank transfer from the sender in their own name / cash in person
Name does not match → I return it, no deal
Who sends first: ____ (and why)
Network: ____   Address verified twice: yes / no
Saved: rate, amount, address, bank statement
Exchange price at that same minute: ____   My margin/discount: ____ %

Summary

1. There's no intermediary in a P2P exchange: whoever sends first risks everything.
2. The fee is hidden in the rate. Compare it to the exchange price in the same minute: on a licensed exchange, the same exchange costs 0.09-0.40%.
3. The most dangerous scheme for a seller is triangulation: real money from a defrauded third party. The tell is a name that does not match.
4. A bank sees lots of transfers from strangers as a money-mule account. Regularly exchanging for others at a margin can be a licensable service.
5. A P2P sale is taxed the same way. Keep the proof for every deal.