Is RetoSwap Safe? Haveno P2P Trading Status After the 2026 Exploit

Short answer: RetoSwap suspended trading in May 2026 after an exploit drained roughly 7,000 XMR (about $2.7M at the time), and trading has not fully resumed. If you are looking for peer-to-peer Monero trading today, the working options are XMRBazaar, OpenMonero and BasicSwap — each with meaningful trade-offs covered below. Do not follow guides written before mid-2026; most still recommend RetoSwap as if nothing happened.

Key points

• The exploit targeted the arbitrator handshake in the Haveno protocol, not Monero itself. Monero's cryptography was not broken.
• Trading was halted within minutes via a minimum-client-version filter — fast, but after funds were gone.
• This is the second security incident involving a Haveno-protocol deployment, which matters more than any single hack.
• Most "LocalMonero alternatives" articles online are stale. Some still list AgoraDesk, which shut down alongside LocalMonero in late 2024.
• P2P is not the only no-KYC route. For many people an instant swap or an atomic swap is simpler and lower risk.

What actually happened to RetoSwap?

In May 2026 an attacker exploited the way RetoSwap clients established trust with an arbitrator. By forging the arbitrator acknowledgement and substituting their own Tor address, the attacker was able to interfere with multisig wallet creation for trades in progress. Roughly 7,000 XMR was taken.

The response was quick: the operators pushed a minimum-client-version requirement that effectively froze trading across the network within a couple of minutes. That limited further damage but did not recover the funds.

The important detail for anyone evaluating risk: the flaw was in the coordination layer, not in Monero. Haveno-style exchanges use 2-of-3 multisig with an arbitrator as the third key. That design removes the custodian, but it introduces a new question — how does your client know it is really talking to the arbitrator? That is precisely where this attack landed.

Is RetoSwap trading again?

As of this article's last update, trading has not returned to normal service. Treat any claim that it is "fully back" with suspicion unless it comes from the operators themselves, and verify installer signatures before running anything.

A practical rule: if you have funds locked in an incomplete trade, do not reinstall or wipe your data directory before backing it up. Several support threads describe people losing recoverability by reinstalling in a panic.

Which peer-to-peer options for Monero still work?

Each of these has a different trust model. "No-KYC" does not mean "no risk" — it means the risk moves from an exchange's compliance department to you.

If your goal is simply to obtain XMR without an account, the crypto-to-crypto route is usually less painful than fiat P2P. Our instant swap listings cover no-account services, and atomic swaps covers the trustless BTC↔XMR path.

How do you tell a real P2P venue from a trap?

The failure patterns repeat. Before sending anything, check these:

• Verify the download. Check GPG signatures or hashes against the project's published keys — not against a link in the same forum post that sent you there.
• Check the domain. Phishing clones of Monero wallets and exchanges are common and have stolen substantial sums by capturing view keys.
• Ask who holds the funds mid-trade. If the answer is "the site", it is custodial regardless of what the marketing says.
• Look for an incident history. A project that has published a post-mortem is usually safer than one that has never admitted a problem.
• Start small. A first trade at minimum size costs you very little to learn the flow.

We apply a version of this when reviewing directory entries. Of the services we track, 44 are flagged as scam and 77 as questionable — those flags exist because someone got burned first.

What we see across our directory

We maintain a directory of services that accept or trade Monero. As of July 2026 it contains 1,556 listings, of which 348 are exchanges. Within that:

The distribution is the story: peer-to-peer is a small minority of the Monero exchange landscape, and the trustless (atomic) segment is smaller still. Most no-KYC volume runs through instant swaps, which is exactly why their freeze policies matter so much.

Frequently asked questions

Was Monero itself hacked in the RetoSwap exploit?

No. The exploit targeted the arbitrator coordination in the Haveno protocol used by RetoSwap. Monero's ring signatures, stealth addresses and consensus rules were not involved.

Is Haveno the same thing as RetoSwap?

Haveno is the underlying protocol and codebase. RetoSwap is a deployment built on it. Other deployments exist, which is why an incident in one is not automatically an incident in all — but a protocol-level flaw affects every deployment.

Can I get my funds back from a stuck trade?

Sometimes. Back up your wallet and data directory before touching anything, and contact the operators through their official channel. Do not reinstall first.

What is the safest way to get Monero without KYC right now?

For most people: buy a mainstream coin, then swap it to XMR through a no-account swap service or an atomic swap. That avoids fiat P2P entirely. Our exchange directory lists the options with their status.

Is LocalMonero coming back?

No. LocalMonero shut down in 2024, and AgoraDesk closed with it. Any article recommending either is out of date and should be treated as unreliable on everything else too.

Last verified: July 2026. Security situations change; verify current status with the operators before trading.