The Peer-to-Peer Platform Gives Nearly Nine Bitcoin to Impacted Users

Paxful, the global peer-to-peer Bitcoin platform, announced today it is giving nearly nine Bitcoin to its Paxful Earn users impacted by the Celsius collapse. The funds will be sent to Paxful Wallets this week.

Paxful announced Paxful Earn in 2021, a partnership with Celsius that allowed Paxful users to earn yield on their Bitcoin. When Celsius collapsed, users who had opted-in unfortunately were unable to withdraw their funds from Celsius—who pointed to “extreme market conditions.” As the Bitcoin was stored on Celsius, Paxful was paralyzed to take action to retrieve the funds.

Celsius Earn customers were dealt another blow this January when U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn ruled that assets in Celsius Earn Accounts belonged to Celsius’ bankruptcy estate, not to the users. In total, this impacted roughly 600,000 interest-bearing accounts—Paxful Earn users included.

Ray Youssef, a founder and CEO of Paxful said, “The courts failed these Celsius users. The U.S. government is more than willing to bailout traditional banks, but Bitcoin users do not seem to be their priority. That does not sit right with me and I have taken action to make sure Paxful Earn users receive their full Celsius funds. We launched Paxful Earn as a use case for wealth preservation and I do not make that promise lightly. Customer trust is hard to earn and even more challenging to keep and I will always put Paxful’s users first.”

Since the Celsius collapse, Paxful has also been incredibly vocal about Bitcoin self-custody—emailing its users around why everyone should hold their own Bitcoin and five easy steps to self-custody your Bitcoin. Paxful is also a proud proponent of financial literacy and transparency—most recently donating funds to build the Bitcoin Technology Center in Ghana to spread financial education.