The worldwide user community of Paxful, which was a prominent peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace, has been left looking for alternatives after the platform’s collapse. However, it has a big effect on the crypto community in Nigeria, where the platform has a huge influence on the acceptance and use of cryptocurrencies. This has led to a considerable impact.
According to the blog written by Paxful’s founder and CEO Ray Youssef, the company made the announcement on April 4 that it will be ceasing its activities because of “key staff departures” and the regulatory climate. A great number of Nigerians who conduct their financial dealings using the platform’s services are now feeling uneasy as a result of this statement.
According to Chainalysis’s “The 2020 Geography of Cryptocurrency Report,” out of the 154 nations that were analyzed for the report, Nigeria placed ninth in terms of the acceptance and use of cryptocurrencies. This highlights the importance of the cryptocurrency business to the nation. The innovative application of peer-to-peer technology in Nigeria that was pioneered by Paxful has contributed to the growth of the business, which has resulted in more Nigerians having access to cryptocurrencies.
A data analyst by the name of Obinna Uzoije, a member of the Paxful Nigerian community, recently told his story of utilizing the platform while he was just starting out in his professional life. Paxful was the platform that he used in order to convert the dollars that he had been given by his employers as payment into naira. Skrill, an online payment network, was used in order to transfer money to independent contractors working in Nigeria for multinational corporations. Because some Paxful users accepted the money, it became much simpler for independent contractors to trade them in for Bitcoin or hard currency. Many crypto aficionados in Nigeria are now left wondering what the future holds for cryptocurrency markets as a result of the closure of Paxful, which occurred recently.
Over-the-counter (OTC) vendor Akeem Abdullahi said that Paxful’s escrow service has given rise to a new generation of OTC vendors. Gift cards might be purchased from people who intended to sell them but lacked the computer literacy required to utilize the platform by the merchants. Many Nigerians gained a greater feeling of financial autonomy and an entrepreneurial spirit as a direct result of this development.
On Twitter, several members of the Nigerian cryptocurrency community voiced their fears regarding the possibility of individuals regaining access to the monies that they had lost. However, Youssef has reassured users in a tweet that the Paxful team is working on clearing users’ send-outs, which indicates that users’ cash would be secure. This information was shared by Youssef.
In conclusion, the termination of Paxful has had a substantial negative effect on the cryptocurrency community in Nigeria, where the platform played an essential part in the development of the cryptocurrency business. Given the unpredictability of the future of cryptocurrency markets, many people in Nigeria are forced to look for alternatives to Paxful while simultaneously fretting about the safety of their assets.
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