Guide: What is Paxful?

Paxful is a platform where users can exchange bitcoin directly among each other in a Peer to Peer way. 

Founded in 2014 by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback under the name EasyBitz, it was later renamed Paxful. 

The main advantage of Paxful is that it allows buying bitcoin using over 300 payment methods: bank transfer, cash, payment providers such as PayPal, Skrill and Neteller, a variety of gift cards such as iTunes, Amazon and Booking.com, and using different cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, etc..

Last December, Paxful partnered with Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, to improve the fiat-crypto on-ramping.

This gives users of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange access to a variety of payments, with 167 fiat currencies supported ( almost all of them) as well as alternative electronic payment systems. 

Binance users can also use the funds on the exchange to purchase bitcoin on Paxful. Conversely, the peer-to-peer platform makes it easier for users to purchase the countless cryptocurrencies listed on Binance.

Users can also use their Binance login to access Paxos, although they still need to pass identity verification on Paxful. During KYC verification, users are required to provide their phone number, a document and a selfie.

Once registered and verified, users who want to buy bitcoin must fund their account with one of the 327 payment methods supported. 

Paxos users start by finding an offer among the available ones, and are guided by an experienced seller in the purchase process through an online chat. Once everything is set up, they pay the seller directly from a selected account to receive their bitcoin. The security of transactions is guaranteed by the mandatory verification of all users.

Paxful has over 2 million users and has reached a weekly trading volume of $30 million.

https://coin.dance/volume/paxful

In comparison, the volumes of the first P2P LocalBitcoins exchange platform are in constant decline after reaching a peak of $130 million in daily exchanges in December 2017.

https://coin.dance/volume/localbitcoins

Last week Paxful also partnered with Chainalysis, the blockchain analysis company, in order to improve the AML compliance of the funds. Using Chainalysis‘ “Know Your Transaction (KYT)” and “Reactor” compliance tools, Paxful is able to identify and investigate high-risk cryptocurrency transactions, such as those from the Deep Web, mixing services or illegal activities.

Paxful is the first P2P exchange using Chainalysis, which until now has considered this type of exchange as “inherently risky” since they are mostly decentralized and they often do not require users to create an account.