The peer-to-peer platform ran Paxful Earn through the doomed crypto lender — and when withdrawals were frozen, its users were also locked out of their funds.
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Paxful has announced that it's going to reimburse all of its customers who were affected by Celsius Network's bankruptcy.
The peer-to-peer platform ran Paxful Earn through the doomed crypto lender — and when withdrawals were frozen, its users were also locked out of their funds.
But in a new statement, Paxful's founder Ray Youssef has declared he's taking action, writing:
"The collapse hurt users and damaged trust in our industry. Paxful, like many others, were paralyzed to act as we could not retrieve funds held by Celsius."
Youssef explained that, when a court ruled that funds held in Celsius Earn accounts belonged to the bankruptcy estate rather than users, it didn't sit right with him.
"Bitcoin is a tool for wealth preservation, and for many, this was money they depended on for their future. Earning your trust is an absolute honor and it's a responsibility that I take very seriously."
The entrepreneur said all affected Paxful users will be reunited with their Celsius funds by the end of this week — and he apologized for the ordeal. He concluded by saying:
"Bitcoin is building a better financial system for the 100% — but in order to rebuild this, we all need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. That means offering transparency and putting users above financial gain — always."
On Twitter, Youssef added that he could not stand by and watch his customers suffer — and admitted mistakes were made.
"We never should have added any of these scammy too good to be true APY services. It was not my decision and we have been under constraints you wouldn't imagine. All shall be revealed soon. I will always do the right thing no matter how hard."
And he revealed that Paxful decided to dig into its own pockets because he "can't win a fight with greedy lawyers."
It's unclear how much this payout will cost the company.