P2P Bitcoin Exchange Paxful Suspends Marketplace With Uncertainty of Return

According to a message from Paxful Founder and CEO, Ray Youssef, the peer-to-peer bitcoin buying and selling platform is suspending its market, and the corporate is unsure if it should return. Youssef cited challenges resembling rules and a few key employees departures, however he additionally famous that he couldn’t share the complete story right now.

Challenges Cited by Paxful CEO Ray Youssef Explain Why the P2P Bitcoin Exchange Is Suspending Its Marketplace

On April 4, 2023, Paxful launched a blog post stating that the peer-to-peer Bitcoin (P2P) alternate is suspending its operations. “Today, Paxful will be suspending its marketplace,” mentioned the buying and selling platform’s CEO, Ray Youssef. “We are not sure if it will come back,” he added. Youssef continued by saying that the suspension might come as a shock to many and that he can not share all the main points right now.

“I can say that we unfortunately have had some key staff departures,” Youssef wrote. “Also, regulatory challenges for the industry continue to grow, especially in the peer-to-peer market and most heavily in the U.S.”

Paxful was co-founded by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback in July 2015, and in 2018, it turned the biggest P2P alternate by quantity. Over the previous few years, Paxful has expanded significantly into Venezuela and Africa. In June 2021, the corporate announced that it might donate 1% of its income to charity. Every week earlier than the announcement that it might droop companies, Youssef informed the general public that Paxful had reimbursed its Paxful Earn clients after points associated to the Celsius chapter.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Youssef famous that many individuals had been making an attempt to withdraw funds and transfers had been taking longer than standard. “The Paxful database is a bit overloaded now as everyone is withdrawing funds, which is making transfers slow. I promise that funds are safe and will clear soon,” Youssef tweeted. Paxful is the second P2P Bitcoin alternate to shut after Localbitcoins introduced it was shutting down in February. The Helsinki, Finland-based Bitcoin alternate, based in 2012, attributed the shutdown to the “ongoing crypto-winter.”

What do you suppose the suspension of Paxful’s market means for the way forward for peer-to-peer Bitcoin exchanges, and the way may it influence the broader cryptocurrency market and its customers? Share your ideas within the feedback under.