paxful - Pwim.Net

How to Leverage FinTech Opportunities in Africa

Over 50 financial and blockchain professionals gathered at “Financial Inclusion and FinTech Adoption in Emerging Markets” for the latest fintech development of Africa held in Eaton Club, Central.

The event commenced with the sharing of Elliott Hoffman, Growth Specialist of Paxful on the adoption of M-Pesa in Kenya and Paxful’s educational efforts to students in Africa. This is followed by the opening keynote of Madoda Ntshinga of the South African Consulate-General in Hong Kong. Madoda mentioned that unbanked people account for around 60% of total African population, which has enormous potential in mobile money adoption. He pointed out that South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria are the 3 countries driving fintech adoption in Africa.

Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful explained how Paxful reached the African market with challenges involved. While Africa is Paxful’s largest market which account for 45% of the customer base, strict control of monetary system by the governor and education to the Africans are some of the key challenges driving BTC adoption. For example, the monetary system of countries like Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso are under strict control by France. The educational effort for Africans is challenging too as people initially believed Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining are full of scams. To overcome the educational challenges, Paxful set up campus tour in 2019 and explained the benefits of peer-to-peer finance to the Africans.

7 Use cases highlighted by Ray

Ray also highlighted that wealth preservation is one of the most important use cases especially in high inflationary African countries.

Ray’s keynote is followed by the panel discussion “Financial Inclusion and New Technologies in Africa”.

Moderator and panelist (From left to right): Musheer Ahmed of FinTech Association of Hong Kong, Duke Malan of Africa Works Ventures, Ray Youssef of Paxful, Karena Belin of Whub, Rajkumar Kanagasingam of Fintech Association of Sri Lanka

Moderator: Musheer Ahmed, General Manager of FinTech Association of Hong Kong

Panelists:

1) Duke Malan, Partner of Africa Works Ventures

2) Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful

3) Karena Belin, CEO & Co-Founder of WHub

4) Rajkumar Kanagasingam, President of Fintech Association of Sri Lanka

In relation to tech adoption rate, Karena pointed out that China has a high rate of 60% while South Africa is only 16%. This presents huge room for growth across African countries. Duke believed that technological inclusion takes time due to structural problem, which tech literacy can be improved by hosting coding camps.

In terms of challenges in financial inclusion, Ray pointed out that there are around 40-50 mn unbanked population in the U.S., which some of them prefer using gift cards instead of bank accounts for payments. He also mentioned that localized process is needed to facilitate financial inclusion for each country. For example, eKYC would not work for Kenya as most Kenyans do not have address proof.

In terms of opportunities in Africa, Duke believed that education, credit rating infrastructure and agriculture markets have huge growth potential going forward. Ray highlighted that Africa presents huge arbitrage opportunities with huge presence of asymmetric information across countries. Karena believed asset tokenization in artwork and payment presents huge fintech opportunities in Africa.

The panel discussion is followed by the keynote by Douglas Arner, Kerry Holdings Professor in Law at University of Hong Kong. Douglas first shared with us some insightful stats in Africa: while 75% of Africans have sim card, only 45% of total pay mobile subscription. The smartphone penetration in Africa is about 35% and it is estimated that there will be 300 mn mobile ownership growth by 2025. In telecom market, the revenue stream is switching from mobile subscription to data and apps.

Douglas then highlighted 17 use cases for financial inclusion. Talking about insurance, he pointed out that modelling risk and climate change risk are the key risks for reinsurers.

The event ended with engaging networking sessions and fine South African wines. More importantly, we have conducted an exclusive interview with Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful on his personal story and latest development of Paxful.

The full interview is coming up soon, stay tuned!

Exclusive: Bitcoin – The Killer App in Africa and Latin America?

In driving financial inclusion and FinTech adoption in emerging markets, Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful explains the key challenges in Bitcoin adoption in Africa and the strategies penetrating into the African markets.

We are glad to have an in-depth interview with Ray, on Paxful’s strategies into Africa and Latin America. He also explained the biggest challenge in driving Bitcoin adoption: how to deal with scammers!

We know that Paxful has been active driving Bitcoin adoption in Africa and Latin America. While these two continents have huge “unbanked” population, how does Paxful penetrates these two continents differently?

That’s a great question, Paxful doesn’t penetrate into those markets or any markets. Those markets are kind of penetrating into us. The people there are teaching us and we talk to them every day. I’m the CEO by doing customer support every day, we’re in the process of completely revamping our customer experience department and customer’s feedback are absolutely invaluable! Their feedback varies across countries and continents. This is because the use cases, customer needs and the understanding of money are different.

We launched a Paxful Campus Tour to listen the needs of everyone and we are amazed at what we can learn from youngsters. They will tell us the problems in their country very clearly and that’s how we can identify potential use cases to them easily. We can then figure out the dominant payment methods in that country, whether it’s cash, bank, online wallets, Visa, or even barter trading. Once we identified customer needs, we can figure out whether the existing product can address their needs or a new product is required.

That’s basically entrepreneurship. First you need information, you need to understand what are the challenges and obstacles that customers are facing; whether the existing solutions can fully address their issues. Then we look at ourselves on how we can help. This applies for any startups, whether it’s crypto, FinTech, or anything. It’s all comes down to the basic formula of identifying a problem, then identifying the community and execution.

Does it mean for Latin Americans and Africans, they’re facing the same problems? Or it really depends on each country?

We have identified 7 use cases for Bitcoin: grey markets, speculation, payments, e-commerce, remittance, wealth preservation and social good.

It’s depends on the country, because look at wealth preservation as a use case. Look at Latin America. Venezuela is driving Bitcoin adoption in Latin America tremendously because of extreme desperation. One million % projected inflation, can you imagine that? The desperation is like someone gets paid, and then literally a week later, that money’s worth half of what it was worth. Can you imagine what’s going through for Venezuelans? That forces them to look up Bitcoin. They don’t want Bitcoin, they’ll prefer USD. Even the value of Bitcoin is unstable, it’s way better than their local fiat currency.

That desperation coming from this wealth preservation use case is driving adoption. Argentina is happening too, people don’t trust their currency Argentine Peso at all but inflation rate is much lower than Venezuela. If you’re going to compare Venezuela, the best example is Zimbabwe, you can see those two markets are linked by the wealth preservation use case.

When you look at America and Europe, what is the use case and similarities there? Speculation! This also happens in the Dark Web where people use Bitcoin to gamble and for speculation!

Same thing applies to China as well. However, China has another prominent use case: Remittance. In China, there are limitations on how much money you can send out of the country. The Chinese are trying to find ways that can move money out of the country to pay their daughter and sons tuition bill overseas.

“Bitcoin’s adoption is based on use cases! Not so much on the market/ethnicity/religion/locations. It’s all about use cases!”

Identifying and knowing those 7 use cases is a huge part of this puzzle, that’s why everywhere we go, I give the same presentation over again on this is what Bitcoin is actually good for. By understanding those 7 use cases, we can understand how each use case can be applied to each country.

During the experience for Paxful to reach those unbanked population in Africa, what are the key challenges such as gaining the trust from the Africans to use Paxful as the surface to buy bitcoin?

Buying Bitcoin is a killer app right now. It is difficult for the unbanked population to buy Bitcoin, as it can be very time consuming and entails high transaction costs even there are exchanges in the country. For example, South Africa has a lot of exchanges that people can use to buy bitcoin.

What about the migrant workers in South Africa that want to send money back home and he doesn’t even have a bank account? He can’t buy bitcoin from the exchange.

As the alternative, he goes to Paxful. Our staffs have built a new version of Western Union and they are focusing on helping migrate workers send money back home, converting the cash into Bitcoin and send to Nigeria or Zambia or Zimbabwe. Then workers are paying their families or get the money in local fiat currency.

The biggest challenge that I can say is because you’re basically letting people transact over the internet. We asked individuals for ID verification when they reach an equivalent of USD 1,500 in trade volume or wallet activity. This basically opens up the possibility that everyone in the world essentially having their financial account.

There are bad actors in the market. They make it their job to scam people. If you think about what we have to do to make Bitcoin work, the hardest part is getting all this money and value out of the fiat world and into the new economy and that’s extremely challenging.

Challenges dealing with scammers

Think about a guy who makes 100 USD a month, is worth it for him to spend 100 hours a week trying to scam you out of 100 USD. The scammer will try to scam others 24/7. When you banned his account, he will make a new account and jump on another VPN. We will do whatever it takes to stop that person and that is extremely challenging.

Any company needs a way to deal with scammers. Look at PayPal, it is nearly bankrupted in the early days by a Russian mobster who was doing credit card fraud on PayPal. PayPal then built an AI called IGOR to detect credit card fraud. That’s one of the only things that saved the company. Now we have to do the same thing, but we have to do it for 400 different payment methods with a much more complex system. Think about how immensely challenging that is, and that therein lies the value of platforms like Paxful, but we’re making it safe and that is difficult, especially in emerging economies where there’s a lot of desperation. We have to do whatever measures are necessary to keep the marketplace safe for everyone.

How does Paxful ensure safety for over 400 payment methods? Will Paxful escrow both digital assets and fiat currencies?

Paxful will only escrow digital assets but not fiat currencies. There’s no capacity to do that, whether the fiat is money, cash, a gift card code etc. There’s some huge challenges with gift cards such as Google Play, and iTunes. You cannot check the value of those cards and you will check their values only when you try to redeem them. We put a lot of education effort to tell people “If you want to redeem a gift card for Bitcoin, do not choose the two gift cards, because they’re extremely hard to work with.” That’s one of the reasons why sites like Localbitcoins ban gift cards completely because it’s a huge pain in the butt.

The reason we keep it open is because it’s one of the few ways that the unbanked can actually get Bitcoin and we don’t want to abandon them. The only way to fix it is by education and this is the best way to go through these cracks. We’re investing a tremendous amount in education such as campus tour and video contents.

By the way, there’s a reason we have presence in places like Nigeria which PayPal and Coinbase have withdrawn. Because we believe in those economies and Bitcoin can have widespread adoption there. It’s not easy to do so but we never give up.

In Hong Kong, we notice that Paxful has enabled Bitcoin purchase in PayMe (app of HSBC). Can you share with us which payment method is the most popular to Paxful customers in Hong Kong?

I know PayMe is very popular here, one of the top payment methods in Hong Kong. People in Hong Kong have a lot of gift cards, vouchers and the Octopus card etc. Markets like Hong Kong are really interesting because people in Hong Kong can acquire Bitcoin easily through a lot of exchanges. People in Hong Kong have good bank accounts that are connected to the whole world.

Hong Kong is the international financial center which makes it very interesting. That’s why we would like to extend our campus tour here to Hong Kong. We’d like to teach people in Hong Kong about arbitrage and what they can do to basically build their own businesses on top of peer to peer finance, and to use the financial instruments at their disposal to make money. It’s a huge opportunity here, we are still trying to figure out the market and that’s why we will be hosting a lot more events and learn from people in Hong Kong.

Can you share with us the future development plan for Paxful?

We want to focus on the four use cases: payments, remittance, e-commerce and wealth preservation. However, the truth is Bitcoin is still too difficult for a normal person to use. We have to make Bitcoin invisible, and it must abstract away the high volatility and become extremely user friendly.

When we have applications that serve each of those four use cases, these applications will be built and powered by Paxful. It doesn’t necessarily have to be branded as Paxful. At the end of the day, we hope Paxful is the universal translator for money.

Exclusive: Arbitrage – the Key Business Opportunity Brought by Blockchain

Following the latest update of Paxful, Ray took a step back and shared to us his inspiration to set up Paxful and what he learnt from 11 failed startups! He then identified arbitrage as the key business opportunities by blockchain and instead of decentralization, peer to peer should be the core value preposition of Bitcoin!

We noticed that prior to the establishment of Paxful, you have set up 11 startups and failed. Can you share with us the lessons learned and how do these failures inspire you to set up Paxful?

My first startup was successful and after that, I had 11 failures in a row, but every single one of them taught me something. Now We’re trying to build a peer to peer Bitcoin marketplace and there are tremendous challenges in doing that. When I look at PayPal, PayPal is literally three times more complex to build nowadays. Western Union has cash as the only payment method and it took 30 years to become successful.

We’re trying to provide over 400 different payment methods around the world to facilitate peer to peer transactions in every payment method. It is immensely difficult and mentally challenging. When I look back on my startups, they all have their unique challenges.

Billing was always a challenge for my previous 11 startups. Payment giants like Visa and MasterCard may not want to work with you if your products are targeting young teenagers or the unbanked. For example, I sold ringtones in my first startup. I was selling credits and users can buy ringtones with credits. You’d never heard of that 15 years ago and the payment giants want to work with me. To sum up, it was very difficult to launch a billing system from my previous experience of 11 startups.

How I tapped into the blockchain world?

When I first heard about Bitcoin, I read the whitepaper but I can’t figure that out initially. Then I started meeting people in the Bitcoin community, they won me over and that’s how I tapped into the Bitcoin space. It got me into libertarianism and the most important thing I got in Bitcoin by far was it taught me what money actually was and where it came from.

What are the key business opportunities brought by blockchain?

The key business opportunities are always arbitrage! There are 400 different major payment methods representing different networks. With Paxful, you can have full access to them and the markets around them. This is an amazing opportunity and humanity never has this before.

Imagine we have some magical friends in every single country that they have every financial account like banks, Paypal and Alipay. Whenever we need payment, he’ll make the payment for us. We have to pay transaction fees in return but the fact that you can now access every single financial network in the world which powers up peer to peer finance.

Do you think in the future, Bitcoin will remain the poster Coin for cryptocurrencies? Or other altcoins will overtake Bitcoin?

I can’t predict the future and I don’t think any other coins are doing better than Bitcoin. All the issues like transactions per second (TPS), privacy is trivial in comparison to the main use case of blockchain: payment network. Bitcoin is a very good payment network and that’s what the world needs! Bitcoin doesn’t need an immense throughput of billions of TPS and other altcoins can do that.

I don’t think another cryptocurrency will pop up that will replace Bitcoin unless something catastrophic happens to Bitcoin. I don’t see Libra as a huge threat as well, I think the reason people are freaking out over Libra is that we’re fighting with each other and coming out with our own coins, going to war with each other and it is just disgraceful. At the end of the day, Libra is just another satellite revolving around. Bitcoin is currently the clearing layer of all currencies worldwide and I hope it stays that way.

Do you think the lack of scalability for Bitcoin will hinder the mass adoption in the payment network? People view Bitcoin as more like a digital gold as a storage of value. What is the core value of Bitcoin?

I think it’s either of those things, like the people of Blockstream want you to think of Bitcoin is just gold and not scalable so we need to build a lightning network on top of it.

Then there’s people like Roger Ver creating Bitcoin cash and say Bitcoin cash should replace Bitcoin in the future. Then there is a guy like me, who is right in the middle and say “There is an entire world of money trapped in retail economies like Amazon, Apple, bank accounts in cash and all kinds of online wallets. There needs to be something that can circulate that money value around. Gold can’t do that because it’s not something that can move around like Bitcoin. Bitcoin is really the clearing and that’s what peer to peer finance is.”

When people talk about Bitcoin, they always say decentralization is the holy grail.

However, decentralization is just the technical feature but the most important point is two humans are exchanging value.

The core value proposition is we are connecting two humans together and how they actually interact with each other. We missed this fact which is honestly the biggest thing holding us back.

Do you think the emergence of Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and Facebook Libra Coin will facilitate a world of decentralized finance and why?

Libra is not decentralized. Those validator nodes are controlled by a certain party of people. Central bankers are not going to lose control of this. They’re going to keep fighting and gain back the control eventually.

The only thing that can stop them is educating people. For example, number one: what money actually is and where it comes from. This is the key. Before Bitcoin, I had no idea about these concepts. Once I figured it out that money is not necessarily gold, silver, and fancy paper that central banks are giving us, money is a representation of our work that freed up my mind. All we need is a medium of exchange and that’s what cryptocurrency is. When we focus on that peer to peer aspect instead of decentralization, that’s when we can start to understand what we’re working with here and we can build real applications that will stay ahead of the central bankers.

Bitcoin Access in East Africa Boosted by Paxful

Paxful is a key worldwide peer-to-peer platform dealing with Bitcoin. Part of Paxful’s intentions is scaling up Bitcoin access in Kenya as well as other parts of East Africa. This is in line with the institution’s goal of propelling economic inclusivity to the neglected persons in Africa.

Since 2015, this company has been instrumental in enabling subscribers to purchase Bitcoin among themselves, whereby at least 300 payment options such as PayPal, M-Pesa (a Kenyan mobile money transfer service), and Bank Transfer among others are used.

Paxful has emerged to be a reckoning force as a peer-to-peer bitcoin platform. Expressly, it has at least two million subscribers worldwide, whereas the volume traded weekly averages at least $20 million.

Bitcoin Adaption is Steadfast

Bitcoin is considerably becoming established in business activities and daily living. As a result, it is the dominant cryptocurrency.

Ray Youssef, the institution’s CEO, asserts:

“Bitcoin is helping individuals have access to global financial services and participate in a new financial system where traditional banking is no longer required. Customers can pay for items that are in foreign markets such as China, Europe or the US using bitcoin. It is for this reason that Paxful gives priority to providing education and awareness on bitcoin and the opportunities it provides.”

Based on its Kenyan activities, Paxful’s mission is collaborating with various educational establishments, creativity facilities, and considerable players in East Africa. Paxful believes this approach will be instrumental in educating the populace about peer-to-peer finance and Bitcoin.

Paxful stipulates that the African Bitcoin market has been growing at an alarming rate. Currently, 45% of Paxful’s primary subscribers are African. Moreover, Youssef affirmed that between January and June 2019, new entrants from Kenya more than duplicated, whereas trade volumes were elevated by 400% in comparison with a similar period the previous year.

Image via Shutterstock

Is Bitcoin in India about to Boom? Paxful Survey Projection

Paxful, the peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace, has released a survey that indicates India’s enthusiasm for Bitcoin has been reignited following the landmark decision to lift the ban on crypto trading.

Paxful, conducted a survey around the future potential of cryptocurrency in India. The survey finding have highlighted which industries are most primed for adoption, as well as uncovered the feelings of Indian citizens,aged 18 – 55, towards crypto and bitcoin.

Prior to the Indian Supreme Court’s reversal of the ban on digital assets, Paxful data showed Indian sentiment around digital currencies did not reflected the concerns of their government.

In January, Paxful has recorded over $3 million in trade volume in India.

According to the March survey, 93.8% of respondents invested in crypto prior to lifting the ban in 2020, with 90% holding Bitcoin and 44% holding Ether.

The Survey found that prior to the ban lift, almost 94% of the respondents had already invested in crypto with the majority holding BTC and about half holding Ether. An interesting finding was that of the 75% of respondents that claim to rely on crypto for money remittance cited the need to bypass a corrupt banking system.

Per the report, “The future of cryptocurrency in India looks bright, and the survey respondents agree with 43.40% stating that they look forward to an increase in jobs and the ability to take on entrepreneurial endeavors. It is expected that cryptocurrency usage will continue to flourish, a conclusion that can be based on the statistic that 40.40% of respondents would invest in digital currency over any other investment option with stocks and bonds to follow (30.00%) and real estate and gold coming in at 14%.”

R3’s Marco Polo Network Sees India As Key Area for Growth

As reported by Blockchain.News on March 27, The Marco Polo Network announced on Thursday that India’s leading provider of digital transformation, Tech Mahindra became the first corporate in India to join the R3’s open-source blockchain-based Marco Polo Network for facilitating cross-border transactions.

With this new partnership, Tech Mahindra carried out several digitized trade finance transactions, facilitated by its partnering bank DBS Bank, utilizing Marco Polo’s Receivables Discounting tool. This tool is a solution that enables effective management of working capital, enhances liquidity and reduces any risks associated with credit.

Rob Barnes, CEO of the Marco Polo Network and TradeIX, the company behind the Marco Polo Network highlighted that the decision behind bringing an Indian company onboard was due to the fact that “Asia serves as a key area of growth for the Marco Polo Network.”

“We are in extremely difficult and challenging times now, with facilitating trade and minimizing supply chain disruptions becoming even more important now than ever,” stated Barnes. “This is a great achievement with two leading institutions with more collaborations planned in the near future.”

Image via Shutterstock

Making a Difference in Africa: Paxful Unveils Bitcoin Donation Fund to Overcome Coronavirus Pandemic

The global peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful has announced its mission to launch the “Africa Fund” that seeks to utilize Bitcoin donations to enable Africa to overcome the current COVID-19 crisis. The fund will utilize Bitcoin donations to buy essential resources for the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

In other words, the company is expanding its #BuiltWithBitcoin charitable initiative in Africa with the launch of the “Africa Fund.”

Paxful Leading Through the Crisis

With coronavirus on the increase in Africa and cases rising at a high rate, the #BuiltWithBitcoin Africa Fund aims to offer a solution to mitigate the supply gap of necessities provided to the Africans. The “Africa Fund” campaign seeks to use Bitcoin donations to buy food packs, personal protective equipment (PPE), and even provide high-risk individuals with handwashing and groceries.

Paxful is kickstarting the “Africa Fund” with an initial donation of $15,000 and seeks to match other future crypto donations by up to $15,000 in Bitcoin. With such an initial injection of funds, the company intends to focus on the most crucial problems facing Africa that include medical supplies, water, and food.

Paxful intends to provide 8,400 meals across South Africa, with GROW EDUCARE Centres facilitating the donation program. It will also organize the delivery of 6,100 masks for frontline workers in Kenya’s Kibera slums by SHOFCO.

Zam Zam Water, which is a humanitarian organization committed to poverty eradication, is also a partner to the #BuiltWithBitcoin Africa fund. The humanitarian organization plans to provide supplies including carrier bags, face masks, sanitizers, vitamin C, diapers, and food to over 1000 people in various states of Nigeria. This includes Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Adamawa, Kwara, Kaduna, and Enugu.

Zam Zam Water is also assisting the 341 families in Rwanda whose children attend Paxful’s #BuiltWithBitcoin schools. The initiative seeks to benefit a total of 1,873 people with access to clean water, health insurance, and provide school supplies and books to continue learning through the COVID-19 epidemic.

Yusuf Nessary, the executive director of Zam Zam Water, identified these as a direct response to the pandemic and by using the power of Bitcoin, the humanitarian organization sets to serve thousands on the ground in a positive manner.

Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of Paxful, said that the company established #BuiltWithBitcoin around creating positive social change. He stated that Paxful was the first to look at Africa and saw the opportunity to make a difference through Bitcoin. He identified the “Africa Fund” as the latest initiative in an ongoing commitment to offer relief and serve resilient communities in Africa during the present time of their need.

Kennedy Odede, the founder and CEO of SHOFCO, mentioned that with Paxul’s assistance, his organization is able to offer essential services and protection, which set the firm to assist in saving lives among most vulnerable urban slum communities in Kenya.

Paxful Ready to Build on Its African Market Success

Paxful believes that the world has a lot to learn from Africa about the future of the crypto economy. The US-based company is actively looking to join forces with African-born cryptocurrency players as it seeks to grow market share on the continent. The company is very bullish on the continent. It believes that Africa has tremendous potential. The company sees people of Africa as teaching the rest of the world about the true use cases of Bitcoin. According to Paxful, the continent presents an opportunity for greater financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked.

Apart from Africa, India is another targetted market for Paxful as Paxful has recorded over $3 million in trade volume in India this January. Recently, Paxful’s initiatives to reach the unbanked has faced a new challenge, as Cyberreason detected an Android malware dubbed EventBot. This malware can harvest crucial information and intercept SMS messages sent to a victim’s phone using the two-factor authentication (2FA) method, and Paxful is among the list of Android cryptocurrency wallets targetted by EventBot.

Image via Shutterstock

Infinito And Paxful Partner to Accelerate Cryptocurrency Adoption Across the World

Infinito, a multi-crypto wallet provider, has partnered with Paxful, peer-to-peer Bitcoin platform, with an aim to offer financial inclusion across the world. Such a partnership sets to see Paxful’s web-based Virtual Bitcoin Kiosk integrated on the Infinito wallet platform. From now, Infinito wallet users can directly buy Bitcoin at the best prices from other crypto users around the globe safely without having to pay any transaction fees.

The new relationship means that Infinito wallet users can now seamlessly transact with any other crypto users on Paxful.

The strategic integration between Paxful and Infinito unlocks convenient payment methods for Infinito wallet users to purchase Bitcoin with more than 160 fiat currencies such as Canadian dollar (CAD), Chinese yuan, USD, GBP, and many more. Paxful supports the most in-demand payment methods such as online wallets, gift cards, domestic wire transfer, bank transfer, and many more.

To fully optimize and simplify the wallet cryptocurrency purchasing experience, customers are instantly matched with traders who are providing the best price on Paxful’s platform based on the payment method and currency chosen. Purchased funds are efficiently delivered to the buyer’s wallet address, thus removes the extra hassle of transferring funds between different platforms.

The Aim to Democratize Finance

Both Paxful and Infinito aim to penetrate Vietnam, a highly potential market with a fast-growing Bitcoin investor community of more than 6 million people. Paxful aims to expand its reach in Vietnam in terms of increased signups on its platform. In Q1 of 2020, the peer-to-peer marketplace experienced an increase in its customer base in Vietnam by 43%. The rise of signups also led to an increase in peer-to-peer trading volume by 262%.

Jack Nguyen, Infinito director, said that Paxful being the first-ever crypto wallet partner sets to provide an opportunity to have Bitcoin available to the masses in Vietnam and around the globe. He stated that this would encourage more people to use the leading cryptocurrency.

Ray Youseff, CEO of Paxful, sees the integration as part of the need to offer and create crypto products that provide real-world solutions.

Apart from Vietnam, Paxful is seeking to create an impact on Bitcoin adoption by focusing on markets in Russia and India. The firm also targets boosting its presence in Southeast Asia and Latin America regions.

Amid the global financial crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin have been gaining significant traction as more people search for different means to diversify their different sources of income. Bitcoin ownership around the world is rising rapidly, and both Paxful and Infinito have experienced a steadily increase in the volumes of cryptocurrency purchases on their platforms, particularly from Vietnamese users.

Infinito and Paxful are now looking forward to attracting more users with a “crypto investment competition” that allows users to experience how cryptocurrency works before investing. Infinito now offers a 3% rebate for all Ethereum purchases done through the Paxful platform.

Making A Difference in Africa

Last week, Paxful launched “Africa Fund” to build its reach in Africa by using Bitcoin donations to enable the continent to overcome the current coronavirus pandemic. The fund aims to use Bitcoin donations to buy essential resources for the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. The company believes that the world has a lot to learn from Africa about the future of the crypto economy. The firm also believes that the continent has tremendous potential and sees people of Africa as teaching the rest of the world about the true use cases of Bitcoin. According to the company, Africa presents an opportunity for greater financial inclusion of the unbanked and underbanked.

Image via Shutterstock

Russian Citizens Are Using P2P Bitcoin Markets to Escape Monolithic Banking System

Paxful peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace has released some important data regarding the use of its p2p trading platform in Russia. The study indicates a rising interest in the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. The research comes at an important time when the Russian government has been trying to make it even more difficult for citizens to use crypto assets.

Crypto Usage Gains Traction

For several years, Russian lawmakers have been contemplating whether to legalize or ban cryptocurrencies. As a result, they created an atmosphere that has left the entire crypto industry in the nation in an uncertain state. Despite these hindrances, Russian users joining Paxful cryptocurrency exchange have risen by 350% over the last 12 months.

Paxful data indicates that new registrations have increased on a monthly basis since the new COVID-19 outbreak began in March. The last three months have experienced a 42% rise in the activity on the Paxful P2P trading platform, with May seeing the best monthly performance amid the coronavirus crisis.

According to Paxful research, the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the main drivers of growth. The interest of Russian citizens turning to cryptocurrency trading increased to combat inflation during the coronavirus pandemic.

Due to economic difficulty caused by the COVID-19, citizens have been turning to an alternative finance system, a trend that has become more apparent in the region.

Anton Kozlov, Paxful’s manager from the Russian market, said that:

“Crisis aside, Russia has always had a monolithic banking system that is dominated by a few players, and the sentiment we get is that Russians are increasingly looking to find alternative ways to grow their earnings and participate in the financial markets. Bitcoin within the P2P context allows them much more freedom to do so – and our data is proving it.”

Russians prefer using payment methods like online wallets, debit/credit cards, bank transfers, and gift cards in the region.

The study shows that Paxful is now experiencing an average monthly trading volume of $4 million in Russia.

Russia’s Central Bank Insists Crypto Is Criminal

Meanwhile, the state Duma of Russia passed a law that grants legal recognition to cryptocurrencies, but prohibits the use of cryptocurrency to pay for services and goods. The bill says that crypto users will not be able to use Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies as a form of payment, but would have to conduct business payment with fiat money.

Despite the Duma state passing the bill, Russia’s central bank has, however, maintained that cryptocurrency transactions are not considered as legal investments. Regulation is, therefore, set to be discussed in the autumn session where the final law would be drafted.

Paxful Research Reveals How Nigerians Are Fighting Devaluation of Native Currency Naira with Bitcoin

The current pandemic has led to a devaluation of Nigeria’s native currency Naira and affected how cryptocurrency trades are conducted in the country.

Devaluation of Naira

With the devaluation of Naira (NGN) from 2018 to now, the exchange rate of Naira inflated from 306 NGN to 380 NGN for one USD, a considerable devaluation that has gotten Nigerian business owners worrying about the repercussions and impacts on their companies. The local currency’s devaluation means that if one had 1,000 NGN in their savings, for example, the monetary sum would have shrunk to 750 USD with the inflation of Naira – this translates to a staggering 25% decrease for Nigerians.

Speaking to local Nigerian traders and business owners, peer-to-peer Bitcoin market platform Paxful discussed probable solutions and brainstormed how Nigerians could combat the devaluation of Naira during the ongoing pandemic.

Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin hedging

IT consultant Ebuka provided a different perspective to the devaluation of NGN, saying that he had managed to profit a little from the Nigerian currency drop by exchanging his USD funds into Naira.

Trading with foreign currencies like Ebuka and converting USD to NGN is not always an alternative for Nigerian locals, however, as many only earn income in Naira and do not have funds in foreign currencies. With the devaluation of NGN, it has become increasingly difficult for Nigerians to exchange Naira for other currencies due to the inflation in the currency’s price. Cryptocurrency trading is therefore a great hedge solution for Nigerians in light of the financial crisis brought upon by COVID-19.

Cross-border trading must be done in a tactful manner, however, and “the focus must be to make small profits first, and not expect to get rich fast overnight,” revealed full-time trader Happy in a discussion with Paxful. She added:

“If you buy BTC at a high rate, be mindful when you hold for too long because any rise in the price of Naira may lead to a fall in BTC price. It’s challenging to monitor the prices of both BTC and Naira, but you’ve got to stay alert.”

Despite the devaluation of the foreign currency affecting international trading, another plausible alternative for Nigerians proposed by Ebuka may be income earned through arbitrage. Arbitrage is a practice used by investors where securities and assets are purchased and sold in order to profit from a difference in the asset’s price across various markets.

In order to help Nigerians and the crypto community worldwide achieve financial freedom, Paxful has also come up with an Affiliate Program, which enables an investor to earn Bitcoin (BTC) and 50% of the escrow fee every time they invite “an affiliate” friend to buy Bitcoin on the trading platform.

Paxful Exits Venezuela’s P2P Crypto Bitcoin Market Following US Sanctions

Paxful, the leading Bitcoin peer-to-peer marketplace, has officially withdrawn its crypto trading services from Venezuela after the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of Treasury classified the country as high-risk.

OFAC classifies Venezuela as a “high-risk country”

The news was announced by the Paxful team situated in Latin America. The Bitcoin marketplace team disclosed in a video released on their social media platform that cryptocurrency and financial regulations were becoming too strict for them to conduct business as usual in Venezuela. They added that it was with deep regret that they were exiting Venezuela’s crypto market.

Furthermore, with the OFAC classifying Venezuela under the high-risk category, Paxful needed to comply with the US financial regulatory sanctions. Being listed under the “OFAC sanctioned/high-risk countries” category entailed that traders in Venezuela were obligated to verify their identity before they sold or sent Bitcoin (BTC).

Bitcoin marketplace leaves Venezuela

Paxful pulling its crypto trading services from Venezuela is huge news, as the peer-to-peer (P2P) Bitcoin exchange was the second-largest P2P outlet in the country. Venezuelan crypto traders seemed to prefer decentralized exchanges like Paxful to government-regulated alternatives.

Paxful’s Latin American branch sent out an email on Monday to its Venezuelan crypto traders to announce the crypto service shutdown. In addition, the Bitcoin marketplace team tweeted:

“To our Paxful family in Venezuela,
Today we are saddened to announce that Paxful will cease operations in Venezuela. We hope that there will be another opportunity to enter the region again in the near future. This is not the end. Thank you always. – The Paxful Latin America (LATAM) team”

The withdrawal from the Venezuelan crypto scene is regarded as a deep loss for Paxful. The Bitcoin marketplace had courted the Latin American country for years, in hopes of delivering an interesting financial solution to the unbanked. The economic demographic of Venezuela and the high use of mobile phones in the region largely appealed to CEO and co-founder of Paxful, Ray Youssef. On his Bitcoin company’s official Twitter, the CEO had previously said:

“There is a massive opportunity that awaits in Venezuela to be the first closed loop crypto-economy.”

How Paxful can deliver financial relief during COVID-19

The peer-to-peer crypto marketplace has done a lot of good, despite coronavirus hitting global economies full force. With certain countries’ economies flushing faster than others, Paxful had conducted research in certain regions to propose better financial solutions. For example, Paxful research revealed strategies that were employed in Nigeria by Bitcoin traders to fight the devaluation of the country’s native currency, Naira.

In addition, earlier in May, CEO of Paxful Youssef had discussed with Blockchain.news about how “Bitcoin could serve as a better store of value for wealth” in times like the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Others in the crypto industry have echoed that sentiment, as Bitcoin has increasingly been viewed as a safe-haven asset.

Deliberations about whether the cryptocurrency asset will potentially replace gold as the traditional safe-haven have risen, with more and more Bitcoin whales turning towards BTC as a hedge.