Cryptocurrency: Paxful Suspends Nigerian Accounts

• Cryptocurrency: Paxful Suspends Nigerian Accounts

Paxful Inc, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace based in Estonia, has suspended thousands of Nigerian accounts with millions of dollars.

The company accused the affected Nigerians of engaging in illegal trading or failed to abide by its TOS (Terms of Service).

According to a statement released by the company on Twitter “All accounts that have been shut down have a reason for it. We will not shut down any account unless they violate our TOS (Terms of Service).”

The affected traders, in turn, accused the company of unethical practices and stereotyping Nigerians despite its own investigation saying otherwise.

Paxful generated over $20 million profit in 2018 alone, surprisingly 40 percent of that amount was from Nigerian customers.

Samuel Olanrewaju, one of the affected Nigerians with suspended Bitcoin account worth $60,000 said, “We have about three million Nigerians trading on Paxful platform and they accounted for 40 per cent of its revenue. Despite this, the leadership of the firm was always referring to Nigerians as scammers. I once challenged the Managing Director, Ray Youssef, for referring to us as scammers on an online forum.

“Paxful allowed all kinds of illegal trading because it was making profits from them. They even allowed Nigerians and other nationals to sell iTunes and Walmart cards in spite of the fact that these cards cannot be exchanged in Nigeria.”

Olanrewaju further stated that thousands of Nigerian traders are affected by the false allegation, adding that a lot of traders have lost their earnings.

However, a Non-Governmental Organisation, United Global Resolve for Pace, has filed a petition to the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and some other concerned government operatives.

The petition filed on April 2, 2009 and signed by UGRP Executive Director, Shalom Olaseni reads: “A few days ago, our organisation was approached by some Nigerians who complained bitterly that Paxful Incorporated, the company that owns the online cryptocurrency trading and exchange platform, ‘https://paxful.com’ has been ripping them of their life investment in cryptocurrency by suspending their accounts, deactivating their wallets and refusing to return the value in their accounts to them even after investigation and finding that they were not involved in any fraudulent activities.”

“The respondent has, through willful disregard for contract and rules of commercial transaction, done a lot to rob Nigerians of their hard-earned money by its unrestrained activities of blocking their accounts and stating that investigation will be conducted.”

“At the end of the investigation, the respondent always comes out to say the vendor has done nothing wrong and thereafter release their accounts without the funds in it.”