Paxful Bans Former CEO Days After Resuming Operations

Paxful, the peer-to-peer marketplace that resumed operations days ago, has reportedly banned co-founder and former CEO Ray Youssef from the platform.

In response to a customer grievance, Youssef also said he is no longer the chief executive of the crypto company.

Paxful Operated Amid Beef Between Co-founders

Several users have tagged Ray Youssef, expressing concern about losing money on the platform. That’s when Youssef said he could not assess the platform and won’t be trading there anymore.

In March, Paxful’s other co-founder, Artur Schaback, filed a lawsuit against Youssef. He alleged material misstatements, withholding crucial information about the business, and fraudulent Bitcoin transfers from Paxful.

Then Paxful abruptly shut down in April before resuming operations this week. In a notification, the platform announced its return after a month.

It said,

“In early April, we faced a difficult decision to temporarily suspend the marketplace to protect all of our customers and Paxful’s future.”

Youssef stated in a statement last month that the business had experienced large employee departures but omitted to give further details.

According to reports, there were also more and more regulatory obstacles for the peer-to-peer business, particularly in the US. When American regulators began to scrutinize the cryptocurrency market more closely after the FTX collapse, Paxful was shut down. Since then, Youssef has urged customers to consider self-custody rather than ‘trusting others.’

Alternate Open-Source Ventures in Works

Youssef was also praised for his “final act as CEO,” when he revealed that he had unfrozen 88% of all frozen customers. This was prior to the exchange’s complete closure and the appointment of a custodian.

Youssef had additionally stated at the time that they were unsure if the platform would return. However, on its return, the platform promised that its safety and security elements had improved.

In the interim, the former CEO has since introduced Civilization Kit (Civ Kit), a decentralized peer-to-peer trading platform. The non-profit is constructed on the Nostr social media protocol. Nostr is a decentralized, open protocol and censorship-resistant social platform supported by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

Youssef recently tweeted about his two ventures, Civ Kit and Built With Bitcoin Foundation.

He stated,

“The future is p2p #Bitcoin powered marketplaces! The startups who commit to building unstoppable free markets will be the ones I look to lead. Whose in?”