In 2023, more than 10 million Paxful users got the news their beloved crypto peer-to-peer marketplace was pausing operations with this comment: 

“Paxful will be suspending its marketplace; we are not sure if it will come back.”

Today, Paxful is a thriving payment network facilitating billions of dollars of trade across over 150 countries annually. It offers more than 450 ways to buy and sell Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies without requiring a bank account.

It’s hard to imagine now, but when former CEO Ray Youssef sent that email in early 2023, Paxful was in a very different position. The P2P platform, trusted by millions since 2015, has had an uncertain future.

Luckily, a small team saw Paxful’s promise. They assembled a board of directors and recruited a seasoned business leader with deep cryptocurrency experience, who has since assembled a team of global experts to build an inclusive financial system.

While we think the story of the business we’re building now is most interesting, learning from and being transparent about where we came from is essential. That’s why we’re sharing Paxful’s turnaround story with you here. Let’s dive in!

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Key Takeaways

• Paxful suspended operations in April 2023 due to irreconcilable co-founder differences and loss of key staff.
• A legal battle between Paxful’s co-founders put Paxful under court custody.
• The court-appointed custodians recruited Roshan Dharia, a veteran executive with experience in cryptocurrency, finance, and corporate turnaround environments.
• The assembled team restored the marketplace within a month, in May 2023, emphasizing safety, compliance, and customer experience across all our products and services.
• User and transaction volume are increasing—now at over 14 million— making Paxful the largest P2P marketplace in the crypto industry. It today operates globally as a regulated U.S. entity with a team of ~100.

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The Paxful Summary: A Multi-Year Overnight Success

Launched in 2015 in New York, Paxful rose from a two-person startup to a global phenomenon ubiquitous among Bitcoin and cryptocurrency users. Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback founded the platform, which quickly gained traction as the go-to P2P marketplace. 

Over the following years, Paxful grew to millions of users and exceeded over $5 billion in trade volume. While early growth came from the USA, Paxful became wildly popular in the Global South, where good ways of saving, moving, and earning money were otherwise limited.

Since our founding, Paxful has become and remains the preferred platform for secure P2P cryptocurrency access—and, by extension, global financial inclusion. Paxful has also championed social outreach efforts by partnering with various non-profit organizations to provide scholarships and other resources to underprivileged and underbanked communities.

In April 2023, following the departure of key personnel and against the backdrop of a public founder dispute, the Paxful founders paused marketplace operations. 

The shutdown lasted only one (very eventful) month, during which a board of directors was assembled, a new CEO was appointed, and the present Paxful team began to join. After many improvements to safety, security, and support, our P2P marketplace again lit up the world in May 2023.

Paxful is back and more committed than ever to building a financial system for the 100%. The proof is in our work. 

Our team has been heads down improving Paxful’s marketplace, products, compliance, safety, and support – but here are just a few of the highlights you might have noticed:

• New assets and payment methods, including the worldwide launch of ETH trading, and support for new crypto payment methods like the DAI stablecoin, AVAX, and OP.
• Improved product usability features, improved lighting functionality, a smoother and simpler trading flow, and the addition of USDC to our mobile app.
• Significant fee changes result in cheaper-than-ever cryptocurrency swaps and dynamic Bitcoin pricing to keep your BTC moving in market conditions.
• Entirely new features, like the launch of Direct Buy with Onramp. Money and Recommended Offers make Paxful faster and more straightforward to use.

Though the shutdown and transition were hectic, Paxful today is run by a professional management team, a 24/7 global support team that constantly improves our products, a rigorous compliance program, and a dedicated community team that is attentive to customer feedback.

The Paxful Story Continues

We’re constantly innovating and have some exciting things in the pipeline. We are working on the following changes to create a better experience for all users:

• Revamping our core products: We are totally reinventing our core products to deliver the best P2P experience available. This will deliver a better and safer experience for all natively on iPhone, Android, and the web.
• Combining the best of humans & machines: We use cutting-edge software—including AI—across our safety, security, and support teams. That means the best of human ingenuity and software scale to resolve questions, prevent risky interactions, and smooth out trades in fewer clicks—already rolling out to select users.
• Playing by the rules: It takes strong compliance, legal, operations, and support teams to keep 14 million users across over 150 countries safe. That’s why we’re taking staffing, tooling, and process design so seriously on our path to build the best P2P marketplace in crypto – without cutting corners.

Building for and with our users is a hallmark of our new direction. We listen closely and ship updates quickly based on feedback you share across X, Telegram, and Discord. If you’re as invested in Paxful’s success as we are, join the Paxful community on any (or all) channel and let us know how we can help you grow in our marketplace.

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Ready to join Paxful’s next exciting chapter? Sign up now and be a part of our journey!