Paxful Review

Paxful is a rising name in the crypto space, providing peer-to-peer crypto trading across various currencies. Paxful is currently making a strong case to earn users’ consideration in a competitive market with a large user base and integrated wallet functionality.

What is Paxful?

Established by the famous developer Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback in 2015, Paxful was initially known as EasyBitz. The company has more than 4.8 million users and over 200 works with worldwide offices in Hong Kong, Estonia, and in the Philippines.

Paxful users span across the world with active crypto traders in Zimbabwe, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, AUE, and Malaysia. The founder and CEO’s vision was to develop a crypto community accessible to every trader willing to purchase and sell BTC as well as other digital assets and altcoins.

Compared to other crypto exchanges that are order-book based, Paxful is quite a straightforward and trustworthy crypto platform that enables cryptocurrency buyers and sellers to directly interact with each other to sell or buy BTC and other crypto assets.

Users can trade BTC, ETH, and USDT by choosing the Paxful buyer or vendor from the available options. Alternatively, they can directly find their suitable counterparties.

As fees continue to rise on centralized trading platforms, an increasing number of crypto traders are turning to decentralized or p2p marketplaces. These marketplaces offer lower costs but typically come with a significant downside: no trading of fiat for crypto. This factor keeps a lot of veteran crypto traders from using decentralized platforms and can make the service more intimidating for beginners.

Additionally, smaller platforms like Paxful can be seen as a riskier option than larger companies, as they can sometimes lack access to the best security technologies. Hiring security companies can be expensive, and prioritizing price over all other factors can often lead to compromise in other areas.

Paxful seems to offer an attractive middle ground, with the low fees of decentralized platforms and the versatility and support of the more prominent players. They also have a security contract with Comodo, one of the world’s encryption technology and software leaders. Read the rest of this Paxful review to discover whether this service is what you’ve been looking for in a decentralized marketplace.

About the Service

If you’ve been paying attention to crypto news for a while, you may remember Paxful by their original name, EasyBitz. The company was founded in 2015 to give crypto traders an easy way to connect with buyers and sellers. If you’ve used online selling platforms like eBay or Offerup, you have what it takes to buy and sell crypto with Paxful.

Paxful is significantly different from other crypto trading platforms in a significant way: they don’t buy your crypto. Rather than serving as a middle-man, buying crypto from sellers, and selling to takers, Paxful serves more as a mediator for people buying and selling crypto.

Paxful’s system will connect you with a buyer and ensure the process goes smoothly if you’re looking to sell. If you’re a buyer, the system will ensure you find the best available prices and quantities to meet your needs.

Because of the lessened involvement on the part of the crypto platform, these types of services often come with significantly lowered fees. While these reduced costs can sometimes also come with fewer available options, Paxful’s marketplace offers a wide variety of currencies and strategies to choose from.

Another downside of decentralized platforms is that they can sometimes provide less effective security and support. Still, Paxful seems to have effectively managed to mitigate these downsides through effective planning and dedicated service.

When using a decentralized system, one thing to consider is that you are dealing with real people as sellers. This means that the timing of the process may not be as consistent as they are when you are buying crypto directly from a service itself. If a seller isn’t online or is unavailable, a trade may take longer than usual, so don’t panic if a transaction doesn’t clear immediately.

How to Make your Account

Creating an account with Paxful is simple and easy. All users need to do is go to Paxful’s website and click the button labeled “buy bitcoin.” After selecting the quantity desired, the system will prompt you to start the sign-up process. While initially only an email address is required, users will have to submit personal documentation to participate in true high-volume trading.

There are four verification levels in total, each requiring a different amount of verification. With only a phone number and email address, you’ll receive a cap of $1000 per trade, which may be sufficient for very low-volume traders.

The majority of traders will be completely satisfied with the third level, which requires proof of residence and grants a $50,000 per trade cap. At the highest level, users receive an uncapped lifetime limit and the ability to make trades of over $50,000.

Once you create your account, Paxful will automatically assign you a crypto wallet to store your coins. You can start using the system and trading crypto immediately, and the system is simple to figure out as you go. Payment is always easy with Paxful, as they support most of the popular options like PayPal, debit card transactions, and bank transfers.

How Trading with Paxful Works

Paxful’s system works to pair sellers and buyers together to conduct trades efficiently. Once you’ve matched with a trading partner, you’ll be able to communicate with them through the system to negotiate and discuss the transaction details. Once you organize the deal, the system will forward you to an escrow service where you can finalize the transaction.

The escrow service employed by Paxful allows for a safe and convenient way to process or receive your payment. Once the transaction has entered escrow, your job as a seller is over, and you can no longer cancel the order.

On the buyer’s side, the escrow service will give you a timeframe in which you must make the payment to avoid auto-cancellation. In addition, once the payment is processed, the system will ensure that the involved currency is transferred quickly.

If you’re a high-volume seller, it’s important to note that Paxful charges a 1% fee on all sales made on their platform. While Paxful can effectively connect you with buyers, it’s essential to consider the cumulative cost of these fees and determine whether it’s worth it for you.

Paxful also offers a convenient alternative to typical trading through their virtual kiosk option. This feature allows users to create a unique payment link to provide to others. This allows for benefits like affiliate programs, as you’ll receive a 2% cut of any purchases made using their link. Paxful also makes it easy for businesses to accept crypto, and they can set your website up with a “Pay with Paxful” link in no time.

Supported Currencies and Payment Methods

This area is a strength for Paxful, as the service supports a wide variety of popular cryptocurrencies and convenient payment types. Users can buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT) on the platform, as well as a range of other popular currencies on the market today such as Ripple (XRP), Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), DASH (DASH), and more.

Paxful users can purchase and trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether. No other crypto assets are availabel to but as of writing this. This essentially means that the cryptocurrency trading platform is quite limited compared to competitors like Coinbase, Coinmama, Kraken, and Binance. But when you compared Paxful vs LocalBitcoins, the former offers more options. Minimum limits for Bitcoin transactions apply.

Regarding deposits, Paxful makes it easy for their users by allowing them to deposit money in a variety of efficient ways. Skrill is supported, as are most debit and credit cards. These features can be especially crucial for new users, as getting involved in the crypto world can be intimidating, and simplicity is always appreciated.

Finally, it’s also important to mention that Paxful supports many of the most common Fiat currencies. This is unusual for decentralized platforms like Paxful and serves to genuinely differentiate Paxful from its competitors. For clients interested in using Fiat currency (such as USD, AUD, GBP, and EUR) while avoiding the higher fees of centralized platforms, Paxful may be precisely what you’re looking for.

Paxful supported payment options

As a P2P digital wallet and exchange provider, Paxful accepts most fiat money transfers, including Amazon gift cards, VISA / Mastercard gift cards, Western Union, PayPal, and a many more. Aside from these payment methods, Paxful also supports the exchange of BTC with over 300 payment methods.

Paxful Wallet

Mainly developed as a cryptocurrency exchange platform, Paxful also serves as a web-based Tether and Bitcoin wallet. As a cloud-based wallet, Paxful can be used anywhere around the world using any device that is connected with an Internet browser.

Based on the customers’ location, they can withdraw or Bitcoin only after completing the first level of ID verification process of their Paxful account. The cryptocurrency exchange’s wallet is directly linked to the platform so that traders can quickly and smoothly buy or sell Bitcoin from crypto wallets or free Bitcoin wallets.

Safety and Data Security

Paxful puts a great deal of effort into ensuring that the data and information of its users are secure. This starts with offering complete transparency to their customers through listing easily accessible information about their team on their website. They also use end-to-end encryption to ensure your data is secure throughout the process and prioritize user anonymity throughout every step of the process.

Another advantage of Paxful’s platform is that it allows you to access reviews of each buyer and seller before you decide to do business with them. While preserving anonymity is critical in the crypto space, it’s also crucial to avoid scammers. Paxful’s review system is easy to access and sort through, so you’ll never be caught by surprise.

Moreover, the platform’s wallets are provided by BitGo, which is the most secure and popular Bitcoin wallet service in the industry.

Every Paxful user receives a crypto wallet through the platform, which you can secure with two-factor authentication if you want. Securing your Paxful wallets with this method is an effective way of ensuring your account is secure. The system will notify you anytime a login attempt is made with your account and allow you to manage your security in real-time effectively.

Overall, users can securely use the platform since the anti-money laundering, and KYC standards are in place.

Customer Service Support Team

Paxful has a robust customer service system that allows it to provide superior service to many of its competitors. While the crypto space is notorious for slow support response times, Paxful’s team typically responds to emails in an hour or less. Users with more urgent needs can also contact their team through the chat feature, although you should expect a short hold time during high-traffic hours. There are also moderators to handle disputes. If the merchant doesn’t send your Bitcoin, just reach out to a moderator.

The way a company approaches customer service says a lot about how they view their customers, and Paxful has gone to great lengths to show they’re invested in user satisfaction. When you’re having problems with your trading system, response time matters, so consider this factor when choosing your trading platform.

Even though the customer support team of Paxful is quite restricted, the exchange provides a broad range of a knowledge-based help center and FAQs.

The Paxful support team is extended through a live chat or online form available through the Paxful logo on Paxful.com or their mobile app.

Paxful’s website doesn’t provide their email address or phone number. But users can reach out to their different social media channels, including Twitter and Facebook to submit their latest news on crypto exchanges. Moreover, Users can mail Paxful at 3422, Old Capitol Trail, PMB #989, Wilmington DE, 19808, USA.

Who can open an account with Paxful?

You can open a Paxful account from anywhere in the USA. As a P2P exchange, Paxful.com is subject to different regulations than what you might see with a more centralized crypto exchange.

The platform is banned in specific countries, so if you are in a country that is on the list of banned countries, you will not able to participate. If you’re a US resident, you can use Paxful, except if you’re in the state of New York.

Opening a Paxful Account

If you want to start enjoying the unique features on the Paxful platform, you need to have a live account and meet the mandatory requirements for signing up, which include ID verification for certain countries.

Note that clients from North Korea and Cuba, as well as those residents of the New York state are not eligible to open an account on Paxful.

Furthermore, new clients must meet extra Know-Your-Customer (KYC) standards and identification check for high wallet limits and high-volume traders. These include video verification and answering certain security questions.

The requirement limits and their verification levels are the following:

• Level 1 – needs email and phone verification and offers lifetime limit and $1000 per trade limit.
• Level 2 – needs ID verification and offers $10,000 per trade limit along with lifetime limit.
• Level 3 – needs address verification and offers $50,000 per trade limit plus an unlimited lifetime limit.
• Level 4- needs improved due diligence and offers more than $50,000 per trade along with an unlimited lifetime limit.

Keep in mind that Paxful platform has the right and authority to delete a user’s account with a single withdrawal or cancel an entire trade. Paxful practices this right only if they find that a trader is in a blocked jurisdiction at the Paxful login or a violation of the terms of services.

Selling Paxful Cryptocurrency

The sellers on the Paxful platform are charged with transaction fees when they sell crypto assets to their buyers. Different payment methods have different selling fees.

For bank transfer, Paxful charges 0.5%. And for wire transfers, online wallets, debit cards, credit cards, fiat currencies, and cryptocurrencies. Paxful charges 1%. And finally, for gift cards, the charge is 3%.

Once the trade starts, the buyers pay this fee through the Escrow service, and once the trade is complete, the fee is released to the sellers.

Paxful Fees

Paxful does not charge deposit fees. Paxful supports over 350 payment methods for account funding, which is significantly higher offering compared to Coinbase or Binance.

As for withdrawal fees, Paxful wallets are free. However, withdrawal fees are charged. Users can remove Bitcoins from external and internal cryptocurrency wallets, which include Binance.

Internal wallet withdrawals incur fees based on associated limits. Withdrawals up to $1,000 a month incur no charge. Then after this, a fee of 1% or $1 (whichever is higher applies). Meanwhile, external wallet transfers are subject to withdrawal fees depending on the withdrawal size. Withdrawals of over $20 incur a 0.00004 BTC charge.

Paxful Mobile App

The Bitcoin wallet app on the exchange can be downloaded to any mobile device, including iOS and Android devices. Paxful mobile app offers easy and safe sign-in accessibility to the crypto marketplace.

Paxful mobile app’s features include:

• Store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies in the mobile wallet app
• View the updated conversion rates or crypto-to-fiat exchange
• Check the status of the recent BTC transactions
• Real-time balance

PROS & CONS

PROS

• Safe Escrow trading to prevent scams
• Fast and responsive customer support system
• Fixed trading fees
• Over 300+ payment methods
• Offers biometric verification

CONS

• Possibility of seller scams
• High exchange rate
• Paxful is not regulated but of course it’s a legit Bitcoin exchange

FAQ

Is it safe to use Paxful?

With more than 3 million users, Paxful has a proven track record in the space and, although no option is fully guaranteed, has grown into a safe choice for crypto traders.

Who regulates Paxful?

No government nor regulatory bodies regulate Paxful, but the company willingly complies with standard safety regulations by regularly conducting KYC and AML tests.

Paxful Exchange Review for Australia

Are you an Australian crypto trader looking for a great crypto trading platform to buy and sell Bitcoin in Australia to do some Bitcoin trading and other crypto-related activities? Then Paxful is for you!

Paxful is a P2P crypto exchange platform founded in 2015 by Artur Schaback and Ray Youssef.

Ray Youssef is the CEO of Paxful and he was a former software engineer. Meanwhile, Artur Schaback, the co-founder of Paxful, was the founder of Kaizern, which is a software company that specialized in blockchain app development.

The founders goal was to simplify access to Bitcoin. Paxful provides a direct exchange where crypto buyers and sellers can meet and transact with each other directly.

The buyer simply deposits fiat through Paxful’s payment methods such as Western Union, Gift Card Code, or prepaid Visa to the seller’s account. Once the seller confirms receipt of funds from the platform’s escrow service, they release BTC to the buyer immediately.

Sellers can accept over 300+ different payment options, not to mention a capacity to accept more than 85% of international buyers.

Paxful is available worldwide, and the minimum purchase amount on the platform is just $10. Another solid advantage of Paxful compared to its centralized counterparts is that users are not required to create a username or password to access the crypto Bitcoin marketplace – Paxful only requires email address in this case.

If you’re in Australia where some centralized crypto exchange platforms are restricted for some reason, then Paxful is one of the best solutions out there!

Paxful Exchange Review for Canada

Are you a Canadian crypto trader searching for an awesome crypto exchange? If yes, then Paxful is for you! After all, it is one of the best crypto exchanges in Canada!

Paxful is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange platform established by a team of developers – Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback in 2015. The founders vision was to simplify access to Bitcoin. The platform provides a direct exchange platform where crypto buyers and sellers can meet and transact with each other without intermediaries.

The buyer only needs to deposit fiat (in this case Canadian Dollar if you’re the buyer) through Paxful’s payment options such as prepaid Visa, Gift Card Code, Western Union or the 300+ different payment options of the platform to the seller’s account. Once the seller confirms the transfer of funds from the platform’s escrow service, Paxful release Bitcoin (or any other altcoins you ordered) to you.

Paxful is available in most countries. And the minimum amount that you can use to buy is only $10! One great advantage of this crypto exchange unlike some centralized exchanges is that Paxful users are not mandated to register with a username or password to access the Bitcoin marketplace. A simple, valid email address will do!

Paxful Exchange Review for United Kingdom (UK)

Are you in search of a user-friendly crypto exchange platform where you can start trading some cryptos? If yes, then surely you’ll have a great user experience on Paxful!

Founded by Artur Schaback and Ray Youssef in 2015, Paxful is a P2P crypto exchange platform who’s goal was to simplify access to Bitcoin and other digital assets.

Paxful provides a direct crypto marketplace where crypto buyers and sellers can meet and transact with each other without the need for any middlemen,

The buyer just need to deposit fiat through Paxful’s payment options such as prepaid Visa, Western Union, or in this case (since you’re in UK), Neteller to the seller’s account. Once the seller confirms that the transfer of funds is successful from Paxful’s escrow service, they release the crypto assets you bought. The minimum amount you can buy is only $10, so no worries if you’re just starting out!

One interesting advantage I really like about Paxful is that they don’t require their users to sign up with a username or password to access the crypto marketplace. They just need a valid email address. Imagine how convenient is that!

If you want to learn more, here’s a comprehensive list of the best trading platforms in UK.

Conclusion

Paxful offers consumers a secure and intuitive platform to buy and sell bitcoin and other digital currencies. If you’re tired of the high fees of centralized platforms cutting into your profits or have been burned by unreliable trading partners before, Paxful may be exactly the service you need.

The Paxful trading platform offers an array of features and advantages that will be appreciated by new and experienced traders alike. Sufficiently simple to be accessible and feature-rich enough to allow you to grow and develop your strategy, Paxful is an excellent choice for anyone interested in getting involved with crypto.

Although decentralized platforms often come with significant downsides, Paxful has mitigated these effects. By keeping fees low, trades quick, and the system easy to use, the team behind Paxful has created a crypto exchange that has all the benefits of a decentralized exchange with few of the drawbacks.

Overall Paxful has displayed a consistent 25% year over year growth. Given this solid growth, Paxful is slated to become an outstanding platform with significant trading volume sometime in the next few years.

We hope this Paxful review has helped you determine if Paxful is the right crypto platform for you. While Paxful doesn’t boast the raw numbers of user-base and sales as some of the most popular platforms in this space, they offer excellent service and benefits to their users. Whether you prioritize security, service, or ease-of-use, Paxful has the features and perks to meet your needs.