Paxful suspends its marketplace

Leading peer-to-peer marketplace for trading cryptocurrencies, Paxful has announced the suspension of its marketplace. The CEO, Ray Youssef in a letter to the marketplace’s user said while he cannot tell the full story — reason for the decision, some key staff departures contributed to the suspension of the marketplace. 

He also attributed it to the regulatory changes in the crypto industry especially in the p2p market in the United States. The CEO revealed the marketplace may not return and has come up with solutions for users who may feel stranded. 

Ray said for the moment, his main priority will be to ensure users are able to withdraw their funds to self-custody wallet; migrate non-US users to platforms like Noones — a new p2p firm he vouches for; and to Bitnob, a platform that makes it easy for Africans t9 connect with Bitcoin. 

Paxful started in 2015 and grew to become the leading peer-to-peer marketplace for trading cryptocurrencies and Giftcards with 10 million users. 

In February, rival 10-years old company LocalBitcoin announced it was shutting down its operation, citing market conditions as the reason it was towing the path. Following this, Ray Youssef, sent a message to welcome all users of LocalBitcoins to Paxful.

The crypto industry has been on a downtrend since the total market cap dipped from $3 trillion. With a series of events such as the continued regulatory pressure, implosion of Terra—LUNA, and the collapse of FTX including their cascading effects , the crypto industry has been moving from one negative news to another. 

Ray Youssef revealed Noones has lower trading fees, cheap wallets, a better affiliate program than Paxful and an efficient KYC process. 

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