Largest peer to peer market for the sale and purchase of cryptocurrency and gift cards, Paxful is celebrating its 6th year anniversary.
The company led by Ray Youssef has been redefining the peer to peer market across the world over these years.
Founded in 2015 has grown tremendously especially in the Nigeria market with the CEO of Paxful, Ray Youssef saying ‘everyone should have eyes on Africa right now’ in an interview.
Below are 6 things you should know about Paxful
1. Paxful has over 1.5 million users in Nigeria
It is no news that Nigeria is one of the largest markets for the peer to peer marketplace. Monthly Trade volumes from Nigeria are sometimes twice or thrice of other countries. Paxful has said it has over 1.5 million users from Nigeria. Paxful revealed its users has cross 6 million.
2. Paxful’s #builtwithbitcoin Project
Paxful through the BuiltWithBitcoin Foundation has been creating enabling environments for people across the world. The built with bitcoin initiative runs with the vision to build 100 communities, improving the physical, mental, environmental and financial health of those in need – one Bitcoin at a time. The website describes the organization as “a humanitarian organization devoited to creating equitable opportunity by providing clean water, access to quality education, sustainable farming, and humanitarian support – all powered by cryptocurrency.” In January, 2020, Paxful announced its third school and by September, it broke ground for the fourth school located in Nigeria.
3. Paxful has reached a trade volume of 5 billion dollars
In a publication in April, this year, Paxful revealed it has processed transactions worth $5 billion. And its major markets are Nigeria, China, India and Kenya. Paxful’s CEO also noted that a 20% increase is expected this year.
4. Ray Youssef, the CEO of Paxful is very passionate about Africa
In an interview, he said ‘everyone should have eyes on Africa right now.’ Ray Youssef has been very passionate about the Africa right now’. He also said that people ask why he’s crazy about Africa and he has told them that he has been in Africa, met the people, seen the problems and it makes sense once people are here in Africa.
Ray Youssef has been very vocal about the events in Africa. Last year, during the ENDSARS nationwide protest in Nigeria, he was one of the first Non-Nigerian crypto CEOs to speak about the issue on Twitter.
In the recent Bitcoin Conference in Miami, he also spoke with such great enthusiasm and confidence in the Nigerian people and how wonderful they are. Below are some of his tweets about Nigeria and Africa.
“The Nigerian Youth are the true heroes of #bitcoin. They have taught me what the path forward is and that anything is possible”
“Entrepreneurship is baked into the DNA of Nigerians”
“The Youth of the biggest economy in Africa, Nigeria, a nation of 220 million, have built their own alternative baking system with #bitcoin. They have executed on the original p2p mission and the whole world will follow. Biggest news ever”
“Nigeria, a land of opportunity”
5. You can sell your bitcoin for Gold on Paxful
In March 2021, Paxful announced it has added a new feature which will allow users acquire gold on the peer to peer marketplace by selling their bitcoin. To ensure safety, only verified users are able to trade to acquire or sell gold. Paxful explaining the reason for the verification said ‘this verification is important to protect our bitcoin sellers from any fraudulent activity. Therefore, it is not possible to trade bitcoin for gold or vice versa without being fully verified on paxful.
7. Paxful to setup Incubator in Nigeria
Ray Youssef published on Twitter few months ago that the company intends on building a business incubator in Nigeria. He said Nigeria is the lion. He also mentioned plans to grow the local Nigerian team by 10x. This was coming few months after Paxful employed a several Nigerians to lead the next phase of paxful’s growth in the country.
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