Paxful CEO asks customers to move their Bitcoin to self-custody

Paxful CEO Ray Youssef wants to see more Bitcoin (BTC/USD) holders take control of their funds through self-custody. His advice comes at a time multiple crypto exchanges are trying to assure customers that their assets are safe with proof of reserves.

But the Paxful founder is championing for self-custody, noting that publishing proof of reserves is not enough. In a message to all Paxful users shared on Twitter, Youssef noted that users should only try to have that which they are trading on exchanges. 

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Youssef also believes its upon every crypto exchange to ensure they protect their users, and advocating for self-custody is the only way to achieve this goal.

FTX collapse shows self-custody is the way to go

In a world where some exchange CEOs are fighting to have customers trust the proof of reserves and assuring them of funds safety, Youssef is taking a step akin to telling customers to ‘bank run’ it. It’s a bold move that some platforms appear to dread, but he says Paxful will email all its users to strongly advocate for self-custody.

“Will be sending an email every week strongly advising our people to never keep savings on any exchange, including Paxful. This is the way! Self-custody your savings ALWAYS!”

The push to have customers move crypto off exchanges has increased since the shocking collapse of FTX.

It’s since been established that the crypto exchange’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried commingled exchange funds and customer money, with billions of dollars of customer assets sent to Alameda Research lost. The kind of fraud that took place at FTX and the magnitude of losses customers face has amplified calls for people to ditch centralised exchanges and go for self-custody – Bitcoin wallets where the user retains full control of the funds by owning the private keys.

“For far too long people have trusted others to hold money on our behalf but – like we saw with the banks in 2008 and recently with FTX – you’re at the mercy of these custodians and their morals.”