Following the company’s recent decision to discontinue operations, Ray Youssef, co-founder and CEO of peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, stated that 88% of all suspended client accounts had been unfrozen. Paxful has now released $1 million in client monies as a result of the recent development.
Youssef went on to say that he couldn’t unfreeze the remaining 12% since he no longer had the ability to do so because the accounts were taken over by US regulators.
Youssef, who earlier stated that he will stand down as Paxful’s CEO on April 18, stated that he handed up that status in order to unfreeze these accounts and is also facing court contempt.
“If your account is still frozen then I am sorry but I have no power to unfreeze those funds and they are in the hands of the US regulators. I have no access and have never had access to customer funds.”
he tweeted.
According to the Paxful creator, 3% of total customer funds is still frozen, totaling around $4.4 million on the site. The outgoing CEO stated that the monies are presently in the hands of a custodian and that he would not tarnish his reputation by releasing them.
The Paxful Saga with Ray Youssef
The new development came two weeks after Paxful suspended its P2P marketplace. Key employee departures and industry regulatory issues were mentioned as factors for the decision in the P2P exchange.
Youssef noted that the decision was also prompted by a lawsuit filed by a Paxful co-founder, Artur Schaback, after being fired from the business. According to the CourtConnect record, Schaback filed a case against Youssef in January, with Paxful serving as a nominal defendant.
Youssef said Schaback sued Paxful because he was pissed, added that the executive’s litigation team was nasty, driving away the company’s senior-level staff.
