Ray Youssef, the co-founder and CEO of peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful, said 88% of all suspended customer accounts have been unfrozen following the company’s recent decision to halt operations. With the latest development, Paxful has now freed $1 million of customers’ funds.
Youssef further noted that he could not unfreeze the remaining 12% because he no longer has the authority to do so, as the accounts are now under the control of United States regulators.
Youssef, who previously revealed he would be stepping down as Paxful’s CEO on April 18, said he gave up that title to unfreeze these accounts and is also in danger of 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 founder, 3% of total customer funds are still being frozen, resulting in around $4.4 million of frozen funds on the platform. The outgoing CEO added that these funds are currently in the hands of a custodian and that he would not ruin his name by stealing them.
The latest development comes two weeks after Paxful announced the suspension of its marketplace. The P2P exchange cited some key staff departures and industry regulatory challenges as reasons for the decision.
Shortly after the announcement, Youssef noted that the move was also triggered by a lawsuit brought by a Paxful co-founder, Artur Schaback, after being kicked out of the company. A court docket on CourtConnect showed that a lawsuit was filed by Schaback against Youssef in January, with Paxful being a nominal defendant in the litigation.
Youssef claimed Schaback sued Paxful because he was pissed, adding that the executive’s litigation team was nasty, driving away the company’s senior-level staff.