Paxful, a centralized peer-to-peer exchange for buying, selling, and trading digital currencies has announced plans on increasing processing fees on it protocol. A statement from Paxful reads;
As of December 15th (UTC 12:00), we will be increasing the escrow fee on gift cards (from 4% to 5%) and bank transfers (from 0.5% to 1%). This was not an easy decision but it is in the best interest of the platform.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Investors, Ray Youssef, Paxful’s CEO claim, “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.”
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.
Why? 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.
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However, 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, Ray noted.
When buying cryptocurrency from another user on Paxful, you are buying at a rate set by the sellers themselves. These rates vary based on numerous factors such as your verification status, payment method, currency pair (such as USD, EUR, CNY), and order size.
Escrow amount is deducted from your Paxful Wallet at the beginning of the trade. Upon successful completion of the trade, Paxful receives the escrow fee. If the trade is not completed, the cryptocurrency is released from escrow back to the cryptocurrency seller—Paxful takes no fee.
Paxful, has recorded tremendous growth in Africa notably; Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, where there is a rising number of unbanked people who source for decentralized ways of processing payments.