Paxful Co-Founder Says 88% of Customer Accounts Have Been Unfrozen 

Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, said 88% of all suspended customer accounts have been unfrozen following the company’s recent decision to cease operations. With the latest development, Paxful has now managed to free up to $1 million in customer funds.

Yousef further indicated that he could not unfreeze the remaining 12% because he no longer had the authority to do so, as the accounts were now under the control of US regulators.

3% of users’ funds remain frozen

Youssef, who previously revealed he was stepping down as CEO of Paxful on April 18, said he gave up that title to unfreeze those accounts and is also at risk of contempt of court.

“If your account is still frozen I am sorry but I have no authority to unfreeze these funds and they are in the hands of the US regulators. I do not have and have never had access to customer funds,” he tweeted.

According to the founder of Paxful, 3% of all customer funds are still being frozen, resulting in about $4.4 million in funds being frozen on the platform. The outgoing CEO added that the money is currently in the hands of the custodian and that he would not spoil his name by stealing it.

Peace saga

The latest development comes two weeks after Paxful announced it comment from its market. The P2P exchange cited some key employee departures and industry regulatory challenges as reasons for the decision.

Shortly after the announcement, Youssef indicated that the move was also prompted by a lawsuit filed by one of Paxful’s co-founders, Artur Schapak, after he was fired from the company. a court schedule CourtConnect showed that Shabak filed a lawsuit against Yosef in January, with Paxfull being a nominal defendant in the lawsuit.

Shpak sued Paxful because he was angry, Youssef alleged, adding that the executives’ litigation team was bad, leading to the company’s senior employees being fired.