Key takeaways:
- According to Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful, 88% of all frozen client accounts have been unfrozen.
- Youssef stated that approximately 3% of total customer funds remained frozen.
Following the business’s recent decision to cease operations, 88% of all suspended client accounts, according to Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, have been unfrozen. The most recent update has allowed Paxful to release $1 million of customer money.
Two weeks ago, Paxful announced that it was suspending operations while unsure of when the platform would restart.
Youssef stated that the accounts had been unfrozen “without engineers or compliance folks,” and that all of the frozen funds were now “in the hands of” American financial regulators.
The Paxful founder estimates that 3% of all customer assets are still being frozen, totaling about $4.4 million in frozen funds on the site. The departing CEO continued by saying that a custodian now holds custody of these money and that he would not damage his reputation by stealing them.
The Paxful CEO continued by mentioning that the business unfrozen roughly $3 million this year. However, it is limited to doing that since the disgruntled co-founder who is suing the business declined to pay for compliance costs necessary to unfreeze the other assets.
Youssef stated, “I forfeited my position as CEO to unfreeze these accounts and I also run the risk of being found in contempt of court.”
The announcement came after Paxful users’ operations were suspended on April 4. Youssef stated at the time that there had been some “key staff departures,” noting “regulatory challenges” the platform was dealing with. The CEO had already approved refunds for Earn programme participants impacted by Celsius‘s demise months earlier.
The ongoing legal dispute between Youssef and Paxful co-founder Artur Schaback, who assisted in the platform’s launch in 2015, was probably the basis for the “contempt of court” accusation.The ongoing legal dispute between Youssef and Paxful co-founder Artur Schaback, who assisted in the platform’s launch in 2015, was probably the basis for the “contempt of court” accusation.
