Paxful CEO Tells Customers to Move Assets to Self-Custody

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Chief Executive Officer of cryptocurrency exchange, Paxful, Mr Ray Youseff, has called on customers to consider moving their assets self-custody following the blowback from the FTX crisis, which shocked the industry.

In a notice sent to customers and seen by Business Post, he strongly advised users to take total control over their assets while assuring them that their funds are safe.

“As CEO of Paxful, I’m responsible for the Bitcoin of over 11 million people. I take great pride in protecting our community’s funds and, unlike others in our industry, I have never touched our customers’ money,” parts of the email read.

He tasked investors to only see crypto exchanges as trading platforms and not necessarily an avenue to save their money.

In his words, “My sole responsibility is to help and serve you. That’s why today I’m messaging all of our users to move your Bitcoin to self-custody. You should not keep your savings on Paxful or any exchange and only keep what you trade here.”

Explaining the reason for this advice, he said, “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.”

This is an allusion to FTX CEO, Mr Sam Bankman-Fried, who broke customers’ trust by misappropriating users’ funds via Alameda Research recently.

Moreover, Paxful plans to remove Ether (ETH) as a tradable asset from its platform, citing the lack of integrity compared to the Bitcoin ecosystem.

This he said is because, “Bitcoin has given us the chance to finally be in control, and we must take it. Rest assured, if you do wish to keep your Bitcoin on Paxful, your funds are safe with us but remember—only keep what you want to trade!”