List of Banned Countries, OFAC

Although we believe that Bitcoin should be for the 100%, users in some countries are prohibited from using Paxful due to sanctions.

As of February 2022

As a US company, we comply with Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") sanctions. The OFAC is a division of the US Department of the Treasury that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United​ States. As such, some are broad-based and oriented geographically (i.e. Cuba, Iran). Others are “targeted” and focus on specific individuals and entities.

OFAC banned countries

 Users and traffic from the following countries are banned from Paxful:

• Burundi
• Central African Republic Sanctions
• Cuba
• Crimea region 
• Iran
• Iraq
• Lebanon
• Libya
• North Korea
• Somalia
• South Sudan-related Sanctions
• Sudan and Darfur
• Syria
• Venezuela
• Yemen

OFAC grey/high-risk countries

Users from these countries have to verify their ID before they can send out or sell cryptocurrency:

Additionally, as we fully co-operate with all OFAC and Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) and Blocked persons lists, we block individuals who threaten international stabilization efforts as defined by OFAC in the regions of:

• Balkans
• The Democratic Republic of the Congo-Related
• Western Balkans area and Belarus as part of Ukraine-/Russia-Related Sanctions
• Venezuela related sanctions
• Zimbabwe related sanctions

Furthermore, we use the OFAC Consolidated sanctions list which covers non-SDN sanctions designations under the following programs:

• Foreign Sanctions Evaders (FSE) List
• Sectoral Sanctions Identifications (SSI) List
• Palestinian Legislative Council (NS-PLC) list
• The List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Part 561 (the Part 561 List)
• Non-SDN Iranian Sanctions Act (NS-ISA) List
• List of Persons Identified as Blocked Solely Pursuant to Executive Order 13599 (the 13599 List)

 Globally, we screen the following lists:

• UN Consolidated Sanctions list which covers various UN Security Council Resolutions
• The EU Consolidated Sanctions list which covers the following programs enforced by the EU Security Council and maintained by the European External Actions Service:
  • Arms embargoes
  • Trade restrictions, such as import and export bans
  • Financial restrictions
  • Restricting movements, such as visa or travel bans

• HM Treasury Consolidated list covers entities designated under the following regulations:
  • ‘UK listing only’ – listed under TAFA 2010 only
  • ‘Both UK and EU listing’ – listed under TAFA 2010 and under the EU’s asset-freezing regime
  • ‘EU listing only’ – listed under EU’s asset freezing regime. The prohibitions are found in Council Regulation (EC) No 2580/2001 with penalties given by TAFA 2010.