On April 4, 2023, Ray Youssef, the CEO of Paxful announced in a blog post that Paxful will be suspending its marketplace and that he isn't sure that it will come back.
Youssef highlighted the fact that The Paxful Wallet will be up for customers to retrieve their funds and urged users to send their funds on Paxful to a non-custodial wallet.
Paxful is an exchange platform that enables its users to buy and sell cryptocurrency. It is a peer-to-peer marketplace that enables buyers and sellers to meet and make transactions. Users can also make use of Paxful exchange as a means of payment processing for their websites.
Paxful exchange offers a wide range of payment options for its users and ensures that its services can be used even in countries where cryptocurrency exchange platforms are restricted. It only offers Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether for buying and selling.
Trust has been a major issue when it comes to transactions on cryptocurrency exchange platforms, as there is a high risk of being scammed. Paxful solves this problem by providing escrow services. It ensures that the transactions are being confirmed by both sellers and buyers before payment is made.
The low transaction fees and user-friendly interface make Paxful a suitable choice for both beginners and experts. Also, due to its numerous payment methods and low transaction fees, the trading of cryptocurrencies is now easy and accessible to anyone with a phone and an Internet connection. But Paxful still has a lot of fixing to do when it comes to scams on its platform. It also needs to increase the trading options for users by adding more cryptocurrencies, as it currently only offers 3.
The mission at Paxful’s birth was to make Bitcoin easier for businesses and merchants. Now it supports 2 other cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Its peer-to-peer marketplace has made it very easy to send and receive cryptocurrencies even if the user resides in a country where such activities are prohibited. This is because you only need an email address and a password to open an account. In countries like China, Morocco and Algeria where there is a ban on the use of cryptocurrency, a lot of people still make use of Paxful for their cryptocurrency transactions regardless.
Despite the rate of scams on the platform, you can filter those with whom you do business by creating a trusted list. When you have a good trading experience with a seller, you can add the seller to your trusted list. By doing that, their offers are prioritised in your feed. There is also a blocked list where you can add a fraudulent seller. These are investigated and removed from your feed.
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When a user buys a cryptocurrency from a seller on the Paxful Exchange, they are buying based on the price set by the seller. In this way, Paxful is just an intermediary to ensure the transaction is confirmed. So when users buy or receive cryptocurrency, there are zero fees.
But when a user decides to sell their cryptocurrency, a certain percentage of fees are deducted from each transaction. The percentage of fees deducted depends on the mode of payment.
A user can send $1,000 worth of cryptocurrency before a transaction fee of 1% is deducted on subsequent transactions if they occur between fellow Paxful wallet holders. If the transaction involves a non-Paxful wallet holder, the 1% fee takes effect right from the first transaction. There is also a 0.5% fee for converting cryptocurrencies.
There are no cryptocurrency deposit fees when depositing from an external address or Paxful wallet. There are no withdrawal fees when sending to another Paxful wallet, but when sending to an external address fees vary depending on the amount being withdrawn.
| Deposit | Withdrawal/purchase |
| No Fees | 0.1- 5% |
| Deposit | Withdrawal |
| No fees | Internal wallet: no fees External wallet: BTC $0 – $9.99 = 0.00008 BTC fee $10 – $19.99 = 0.00016 BTC fee $20+ = 0.0004 BTC fee 1% fee of total if using Lightning ETH $0 – $9.99 = 0.0005 ETH fee $10 – $19.99 = 0.001 ETH fee $20+ = 0.002 ETH fee USDT $0 – $9.99 = 1 USDT fee $10 – $19.99 = 2 USDT fee $20+ = 5 USDT fee |
To ensure users keep track of their funds, buy and sell their cryptocurrency easily, Paxful has made its interface interactive and user-friendly. The buy, sell and convert buttons are placed on the user’s account dashboard. It is also very easy to find the deposit/withdraw interface.
If you have trouble with the site or some questions to ask, Paxful’s customer support is always easy to reach out to. The Paxful bot is the best way to get hold of the customer support. You type in your particular problem on the chat page with the bot. The issue is then reviewed by the support team and an answer is sent to your email.
You can access the Paxful bot by clicking on the chat icon on Paxful’s homepage. On Paxful mobile apps, you click on the contact support icon and you are directed to the Paxful help centre where there are loads of articles describing how to solve whichever problems you might have.
| Support offered | Wait times | |
| Paxful bot / live chat | ✅ | 1+ minute |
| Help centre | ✅ | 6+ hours |
Here are the steps to open an account on Paxful:
Go to Paxful’s homepage and click on the create account button.
Input either your phone number or your email address and a strong password.
Verify your email address or input the OTP sent to your phone number. With this, you have successfully created an account on Paxful.
Getting your account verified offers you a lot of benefits when using Paxful. It also makes it easy for moderators to help when the need arises. Learn more about the importance of KYC here. The following are the steps to verify your account.
While there have been a lot of reports of scams, Bitcoin can be safely bought on Paxful. To buy Bitcoin safely on Paxful, ensure you are buying from a trusted seller.
Yes, Paxful is a legitimate site, although there might be some fraudsters on the platform.
Paxful charges fees on your withdrawals and when you sell or send cryptocurrency. You won’t be charged for depositing, receiving or buying cryptocurrency.
You can withdraw money from Paxful through bank transfers, wire transfers, cryptocurrencies, gift cards and debit/credit cards.
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