- Paxful announced that it will suspend its marketplace and they do not know if operations will resume at some point.
- The platform was affected by a lawsuit filed by Paxful co-founder Artur Schaback, which affected its operations.
- Paxful will not be disabling the Paxful Wallet at this time for everyone to withdraw their belongings.
When Satoshi Nakamoto thought about the functionalities of Bitcoin, his ideal was that there were no intermediaries and trade was governed by supply and demand. The price would come from how much each party was willing to pay for a limited product and with the promise of being revolutionary. And although this does not work this way, especially due to the importance of centralized exchanges, there is a peer-to-peer market.
One of the most important P2P markets when trading BTC is Paxful. The platform works like a “people seeker”: users offer to sell and others are willing to buy. They define a price for the transaction and the site ensures that there are no scams operating as a broker who keeps a commission. However, it could soon disappear.
Does Paxful say goodbye?
Born in 2015, the business led by CEO Ray Youssef reported that they suspended their marketplace and do not know if operations will resume at some point. “While I can’t share the full story right now, I can say that unfortunately we have had some key personnel departures. This is probably a big surprise to many, ”he communicated.
Youssef had been sued by Paxful co-founder Artur Schaback and stated
“I couldn’t guarantee the security of the platform. That’s why this had to go down. Schaback was pissed off so he sued the company and their litigation team was really nasty. They fired all of our senior staff. They just couldn’t keep trying with this guy and so he refused to pay our engineers and refused to pay our compliance“.
Paxful, which had its own wallet in which users could store their funds, will not disable the Paxful Wallet for the time being for everyone to withdraw their belongingss. They even encouraged them to try self-custody and recommended Bitcoin payment company Bitnob, which has launched the P2P Noones marketplace.
Although this determination caused surprise, in December the platform had suspended Ethereum trading. The explanation at the time was that the decision was due to the network switching from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). Only the commercialization of Bitcoin had remained standing, as published by CoinDesk.
Paxful, a user testing project
Youssef, an Egyptian immigrant raised in New York, created Paxful with the goal of “Empowering the four billion unbanked and forgotten people to control their money like never before.”
That human side could be seen in the “Built with Bitcoin” project. The platform built four houses, among other missions.
“With generous contributions from our users and friends we have been able to provide food, hand sanitisers and other protective equipment for those in need in Africa,” the team highlighted.
Paxful’s demise comes at a time when the United States has focused on cryptocurrencies and crypto markets, requiring them to comply with upcoming regulations. At the moment it is not known if the platform is the last to disappear. It had four offices around the world and more than 200 employees.
With Paxful’s fall, P2P trading loses a strong and trusted player. Although this is far from meaning the weakening of the ecosystem, it is rather a new beginning.
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