Paxful

Initially handling payment processing for brick-and-mortar merchants, they quickly expanded following a surge in demand following media reports that they would be processing payments for backpage.com. The platform now allows traders to transact and communicate with each other through their internal messaging system. It also acts as an online bitcoin wallet, supporting a range of payments methods from gift cards to bank transfers.

As of 2018, Paxful is the one of the biggest USD peer to peer bitcoin marketplaces by volume, with a revenue of over $20,703,199 as of December 1, 2018.

Paxful Inc was co-founded in July 2015 by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback. First started as a payment processing platform for brick-and-mortar merchants, it was eventually reintroduced on the bitcoin market as Paxful, Inc. In addition to being an easier way for people to buy bitcoin, it emphasized a peer-to-peer working system, which would become the service’s chief focus.

In 2015, the platform saw an increase in users after classified advertising website Backpage had their credit card merchant services removed. This led to the site to provide the link to Paxful to their users, which was then known as the “Backpage Effect” by the platform’s co-founders.

In 2016, Paxful Inc saw more increase in their popularity among users with the launch of the Pay with Paxful feature, which allows users to pay with bitcoins in an instant.

The platform's owners were arrested in Miami in an incident in which Artur Shaback, head of IT at Paxful, was spotted by local area residents being photographed by Ivan Suhharev, CTO of Paxful, with a mask over his face while holding an automatic rifle on the balcony of a Del Rio Apartment penthouse in Miami.

As of 2018, Paxful Inc provides more than 300 payment methods for users and has expanded its services worldwide, namely New York, The Philippines, and Hong Kong. One of the most popular payment methods available on the platform is through gift cards, which makes up 64% of the trades conducted on the platform and over $880,000,000 worth of bitcoins being purchased.

One of Paxful Inc’s most recent ventures of 2018 is their expansion to Venezuela beginning in October. In an interview with CoinDesk, Ray Youssef has stated that the plans for expansion was to help more mobile phone subscribers of the country gain access to bitcoins. In the same interview, Youssef has also stated in introducing the platform as an application through Android.

In early 2018, Paxful Inc was cited in a report by the email defense firm Agari presenting findings on a Nigerian scam group the company has dubbed Scarlet Widow with potentially millions of dollars of stolen gift cards laundered through the Paxful platform .