Ray Youssef, the CEO, and co-founder of Paxful announced that he is developing a plan to reimburse users’ funds using his own money in an effort to comply with the law and avoid further legal problems after the sudden shutdown of his P2P Bitcoin exchange.
Youssef explained that he risks going to jail for failing to comply with court orders regarding the recovery of Paxful’s frozen funds, which led him to take such a drastic measure. He also stated that he is doing this to prevent the funds from falling into oblivion and leaving users unable to recover them. Youssef asked the community for patience while he carries out this task.
Youssef’s troubles are primarily due to a legal dispute with Artur Schaback, another co-founder of Paxful. Schaback accused Youssef of excluding him from internal operations and making fraudulent fund transfers after his departure from the company. Youssef, on the other hand, claimed that Schaback was fired two years ago for reasons including “incompetence and misconduct” and refusal to participate in internal investigations. Youssef described his dismissal from Paxful as a “horrible divorce” with his former partner.
Before the legal issues, Youssef had a goal of building a network of decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin marketplaces that would become “the most exciting thing since Bitcoin.” However, the regulatory issues that hit the company and the lawsuit from Schaback put an end to this dream. Paxful was added to a list of cryptocurrency exchanges that were affected by regulatory pressures, particularly from the US government. The company spent millions of dollars trying to comply, but Youssef indicated that it was not enough.
Former Paxful CEO collaborating with former Twitter CEO to launch p2p bitcoin platform
Despite having to close his seven-year-old company, Youssef’s desire to continue working in the crypto ecosystem has not diminished. He is now collaborating with Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, to launch a decentralized P2P bitcoin trading platform called Civilization Kit (Civ Kit). According to Youssef, the platform will be launched in less than two weeks.
It remains to be seen if Civ Kit will be a clone of Paxful or a brand new development for the Bitcoin ecosystem. Nevertheless, Youssef’s willingness to take risks to protect his users’ funds and his determination to continue working on innovative projects in the crypto industry demonstrates his commitment to this space.
