Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful, a P2P platform for trading Bitcoin, has urged investors to self-custody Bitcoin rather than keeping funds on centralized exchanges.
Will be sending an email every week strongly advising our people to never keep savings on any exchange, including @paxful This is the way ! Self custody your savings ALWAYS! pic.twitter.com/DI95Gaa5Y6
— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) December 11, 2022
“As Paxful’s CEO I am responsible for the bitcoins of more than 11 million people. I am very proud to defend the community’s funds and, unlike others in the industry, I have never touched our customers’ money,” he wrote.
He urged users to self-custody their holdings. In his view, exchanges should only hold assets intended for trading.
“Why? People have trusted others with their money for too long, but, as we have seen with banks in 2008 and recently with FTX, you become dependent on these custodians and their morals,” he explained.
According to Youssef, if users choose to keep their Bitcoin on Paxful, their funds will be safe. He also pledged to continue advising his customers weekly not to keep savings on any exchange.
Earlier, hardware-wallet makers Ledger and Trezor reported a substantial surge in sales of devices in the wake of the FTX collapse.
Earlier in November, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and former MicroStrategy head Michael Saylor urged self-custody of digital assets.
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