Investigating Paxful’s Final Log Out: What went so wrong?

For almost a decade, Paxful wasn’t just part of Africa’s crypto story . It was the story. With over 400 payment methods, Paxful turned mobile money into global money, giving ordinary people a way to save in dollars, send value across borders, and believe, for a moment, that crypto could actually deliver financial freedom.
Now, that chapter is closing.

The Announcement

According to a company statement, Paxful will cease all operations by November 1, 2025, citing the “lasting impact of historic misconduct” by its former co-founders Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback, along with the unsustainable costs of maintaining global compliance.

This marks the end of a 10-year run that saw over 14 million users across 140 countries trade billions in crypto value . Much of it in Africa.

A Bit of Backstory

So Paxful’s story has always been a mix of innovation and controversy.
Founded in 2015, it became a lifeline for users in markets shut out by traditional finance. With 400+ payment methods, from M-Pesa to gift cards, it offered a dollar exit when banks wouldn’t.

But behind the convenience, compliance cracks were forming. In July 2024, co-founder Artur Schaback pleaded guilty in the U.S. to failing to implement proper anti-money laundering (AML) controls between 2015 and 2019 . That’s a four-year gap regulators described as “systemic negligence.”

That came after a bitter 2023 fallout with co-founder Ray Youssef, who accused Schaback of mismanagement before leaving to start a rival exchange, NoOnes.

By the time new management took over in 2024, Paxful was already burning millions trying to clean up its past.

When Compliance Becomes the Enemy

The official line calls this a “strategic closure,” but that’s only half the story.

Compliance, once an afterthought for P2P platforms, has now become the entire business model.
The cost of staying compliant, i.e Audits, sanctions screening, cross-border KYC has ballooned globally. Even Binance’s P2P operations in Nigeria have faced banking blockades and tighter oversight.

Paxful’s current team reportedly returned to profitability in early 2025. But that came at a cost that made the math stop working.
As one former insider put it, “We fixed the ship, but the ocean changed.”

Ray’s Shadow and NoOnes’ Rise

Adding a little drama, Ray Youssef, now the CEO of NoOnes, has been throwing subtle jabs on X (formerly Twitter), calling Paxful’s shutdown “avoidable.” Ironically, NoOnes was hacked for around $8 million in January 2025.
However, it’s gained strong traction in Africa and Latin America, branding itself as the “Paxful 2.0” for emerging markets. Even as Paxful fades out, the man who once built it isn’t done building. This captain won’t go down with his ship.

Africa Without Paxful

Now we have to hide our heartache, when someone speaks your name

For Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, Paxful was a lifeline.
It gave users a workaround when inflation ate savings and dollar access dried up. People could 
trade airtime for USDT, swap M-Pesa for BTC, send remittances without banks or borders.

Now, that lifeline is fading. LocalBitcoins is gone. Binance P2P has scaled back.
What’s left are smaller, compliance-first players or homegrown startups quietly building under Africa’s new Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) laws, like Kenya’s 2025 VASP Bill.

In Conclusion

Paxful says all funds remain safe and urges users to withdraw before November 1. Paxful may be logging off, but the idea it started, borderless, human finance, is only getting a regulatory reboot.

Also, can we try and be better founders and co-founders?

Thanks for reading! Check out the rest of the poem by the way. Its from Adult Memorial Poems — In Memoriam (author unknown) on Colourful Coffins