Paxful, the P2P Bitcoin trading platform, has announced that it will cease serving customers in Venezuela due to tightening regulation and U.S. sanctions on the country.
To our Paxful family in Venezuela,
Today, we are saddened to announce that Paxful will stop operating in Venezuela.
We hope there will be another opportunity to enter the region again in the near future. This is not the end.
Thank you always.
The Paxful LATAM team pic.twitter.com/sAkdKIg1Sb— Paxful LATAM (@paxful_LATAM) September 14, 2020
The noted that it regrets this difficult decision. From September 16, Venezuelan users have 30 days to withdraw funds without fees and charges.
“Users who have completed address verification and confirmed that they live abroad will be able to use Paxful,” the press release notes.
According to CoinDesk, in June Paxful ceased interacting with the Bank of Venezuela due to sanctions. Later, the authorities blocked access to the Coinbase-supported cryptocurrency exchange AirTM, accusing it of ties to the opposition. Bittrex International had already exited the Venezuelan market in October 2019.
Earlier this year Paxful offered the ability to buy and sell physical gold for bitcoins. At that time, the platform described its offering as unique — none of the P2P markets allowed using the precious metal as payment.
In April, the government of Venezuela decided to help small and medium agro-industrial businesses with loans in the national digital currency El Petro. The authorities allocated more than 650,000 coins to support farmers.
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