Paxful is Shutting Down

On Tuesday, April 4th, Paxful’s CEO informed its users that it is shutting down its operations.

The screenshot below is a copy of the message sent by Ray Youssef, the CEO of Paxos, revealing that the peer-to-peer exchange is closing and hints that there is a slight chance that the move may not be permanent.

Youssef states that the main reasons for the closing are regulatory challenges and the departures of several important staff members.

Together with the unexpected closing, Paxful recommended self-custody to its users and reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding their funds.

The platform also promised easy migration to Noones for its international clientele, and to Bitnob for those based in Africa. Without naming others, Paxful also stated that easy migration to other P2P platforms will be available.

The decentralized exchange founded in 2015 has been faced, along with the entire digital assets industry, with a multitude of hardships and setbacks over the previous year.

In late January, after the country revealed new registration requirements, it stopped operating in Canada. On March 29th, just days before shutting down, Paxful decided to make all users who lost funds with Celsius Earn whole.

Peer-to-Peer Exchanges Are Becoming Extinct

Paxful was the last remaining global peer-to-peer crypto exchange. In the last year LocalBitcoins, the world's largest peer-to-peer exchange closed as well as LocalCryptos.

These peer-to-peer exchanges offered individuals the ability to exchange fiat for cryptocurrency without the use of a traditional centralized cryptocurrency exchange.

With the shuttering of Paxful, the last remaining international peer-to-peer exchange, many users who choose not to use traditional cryptocurrency exchange or are not able to transact on traditional crypto exchanges will have to find other means of exchanging their crypto.