Account

What is the Trader Program?

What are the benefits of the Trader Program?

What are the requirements to join the Trader Program?

How will I know if I'm eligible to be part of the Trader Program?

I've met all the requirements. How do I get an account badge?

I've completed the required amount of trades. Why doesn't my account have a badge?

Can I lose my Trader Program status?

What is the Trader Program?

The Trader Program provides exclusive perks and benefits to active and well-respected members of our platform. There are two different levels: Power Trader and Expert Trader.

What are the benefits of the Trader Program?

Power Trader

• A badge on your profile
• Be the first to try new features
• Instant disputes
• No bond requirement on gift card trades
• Priority support

Expert Trader

• A badge on your profile
• Be the first to try new features
• Featured offers (available to members with dedicated account managers)
• Sell offer promotion (available to members with dedicated account managers)
• Instant disputes
• No bond requirement on gift card trades
• Priority support
• Dedicated account manager (we have temporarily paused this benefit)
• Customized fees  (we have temporarily paused this benefit)

What are the requirements to join the Trader Program?

Power Trader

• Follow our Terms of Service
• You've had an account for at least 90 days
• Verified ID and proof of address
• A good behavior score*
• You complete at least 250 trades every 90 days**

Expert Trader

• Follow our Terms of Service
• You've had an account for at least 90 days
• Verified ID and proof of address
• A good behavior score*
• You complete at least 1,000 trades every 90 days**

*To be a good trader on Paxful, we expect honest trading, prompt release times, keeping the trade on Paxful, etc. You can refer to our Terms of Service for more information on acceptable behavior when using the marketplace.

**A trade must be worth 20 USD or more to count toward the Trader Program.

How will I know if I'm eligible to be part of the Trader Program?

Once you meet the requirements we'll send a notification to your Paxful account letting you know! We'll also send an email to the address linked to your Paxful account.

I've met all the requirements. How do I get an account badge?

Great question! Once you've completed the required number of trades and your account is in good standing, you can contact our support team. They'll review your account and add the badge if you meet the requirements. Once you have your badge you can begin enjoying the benefits of the program!

I've completed the required number of trades. Why doesn't my account have a badge?

We define trades as both buying and selling cryptocurrency on our platform. If you've only done one or the other, you won't be eligible for the Trader Program. However, if you've been buying and selling cryptocurrency but don't have a badge, you can contact us for help with your badge!

Can I lose my Trader Program status?

Yes, you can. We look at your account on a rolling basis, so the requirements need to be met consistently over a 90-day period to keep your Trader Program status. You can also lose your Trader Program status if you break our Terms of Service and/or compliance requirements.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Suggestions?

We'd love to hear from you! You can reach out to our support team and we'll get back to you.

To maintain safe conditions within the Paxful marketplace, we take action on accounts that violate any of our Terms of Service. These actions will have a status that restricts the usage of Paxful.

If your account is suspended, you are restricted from using your Paxful account. 

If your account is locked, you temporarily won’t be able to login to your Paxful account—this could be because you logged in from a new location, or we may have detected suspicious activity so it’s been locked to keep you safe. For more information, take a look at this article.

If your account is frozen, you temporarily can’t buy or sell on Paxful and you can’t withdraw any funds. 

If your account has been limited, you are either permanently/temporarily restricted from trading, creating, and editing offers. Although your account is restricted, wallet services will still be available such as receiving, sending, and converting crypto.

If your account is on-hold, your account is restricted for a period of time for further review. After the time period expires, you can withdraw any funds in your wallet. If your account is not ID verified, you’ll be required to verify your ID before you can withdraw any funds.

If your account is banned, you are permanently restricted from buying and selling. However, you will still be able to do a one-time withdrawal of all your funds from your Paxful account and send it to any wallet address you choose. If you’re from a country on this list, or if you have reached your wallet send out limit, you’ll be required to verify your ID before you can withdraw your funds.

What causes account restrictions?

Here are some of the activities that can lead to your account being restricted: 

• Seller of cryptocurrency asking to cancel the trade after the payment was completed.
• Conducting a trade outside of Paxful trade escrow by communicating through Telegram, WhatsApp, etc.
• Making a chargeback or reversing the payment after it has been processed.
• Coin locking or holding a seller’s cryptocurrency in escrow without the intention to make the payment and complete the trade.
• Unauthorized use of gift cards, such as selling a gift card in multiple trades and selling gift cards that have already been used. 
• Forcing or tricking a trade partner to immediately release their cryptocurrency.

Paxful has zero tolerance for the following:

• Using multiple Paxful accounts.
• Using a fake identity or falsified verification documents.
• Using Paxful from an OFAC banned country listed on this page.
• Unauthorized use of gift cards / chargebacks / defrauding users.

How do I remove the restriction?

Some account restrictions such as banned and suspended are not reversible, therefore the actions are final. 

However, if your account is frozen, first check your email for information, and then contact Support to figure out the next steps for appeal. 

If your account is locked, please take a look at this article for steps on how to unlock your account.

Cryptocurrency can be intimidating for newbies so we've created a guide on how to create an account on Paxful to help you get started.

Your Paxful journey begins with a simple decision: whether or not to create an account. If you think that you’re ready to take the plunge into the world of crypto and financial freedom, then the next step is to create your Paxful account. Creating your account is easy and very user-friendly. Upon registering, you also get a free wallet to store the cryptocurrency you earn from trading on Paxful. 

Here’s a Paxful school tutorial to walk you through the process of creating your account:

To create a new Paxful account:

1. Open a web browser and launch the Paxful webpage: https://paxful.com.

2. Click Register on the top right corner of the main page.

3. Choose if you'd like to create an account with your phone number or email address and create a password.

4. From there, you'll need to verify your phone or email address (whichever one you chose to create your account with).

Once you have created your account, we recommend verifying your phone or email address (whichever one you did not use to sign up with) and identity as well to gain more trading opportunities on our platform. If you have any other questions, feel free to explore our Help Center, reach out to us via Contact Us form on our website, or send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Your profile contains a summary of your account and your history on Paxful. Other Paxful users can view the following information:

• Username
• Profile picture
• Verification - information if your email, phone, ID or address are verified,  and you were verified as a trusted vendor.
• Reputation - an aggregation of the positive and negative feedback that you have received on Paxful.
• Active offers - offers you created that are currently active.
• Your profile language
• Number of trade partners
• Number of trades
• Trade volume - total BTC you’ve traded on Paxful.
• Number of users who trust you
• Number of users who have blocked you
• Time elapsed since you joined Paxful
• Last time you were online on Paxful

As you can see, your public profile will contain all the credentials you have earned on Paxful and will help other users decide if you are a safe trade partner or not.

Your dashboard is the hub to track all your activities on Paxful and allows you to access all the information you need. There are 4 different dashboards on Paxful, each with its own specific uses and functions.

Classic Dashboard

Once you create an account on Paxful you get a free wallet and access to the Classic Dashboard. This is the general/default dashboard where you can:

• See your active and past trades.
• Check help pages.
• Create and edit your offers.
• Get an overview of your affiliates.
• Check account activity.

Vendor Dashboard

This dashboard appears as soon as you create your first offer. On the vendor dashboard, you can:

• View your active and past trades. 
• Get an overview of your affiliates.
• See your sales charts.
• See offer statistics: active, deactivated offers and more.
• View past trade survey results.
• Create and edit offers
• Perform additional account verification steps.
• Request additional features from our developers.

In general, this dashboard is useful when you want to see the statuses of all your trades and offers.

Merchant Dashboard

This dashboard exclusively applies to users who are using the “Paxful Pay” feature (sign up for this feature on our Paxful Pay page). On the Merchant Dashboard you can see:

• Your sales for the last 28 days. 
• All transactions made using the merchant link.

Affiliate Dashboard

This is the dashboard to track your affiliates and your affiliate commissions. 

On this dashboard, you can:

• View your affiliate link and share it with your friends and network.
• Get a detailed overview of all your affiliates.
• Check your affiliate earnings from completed trades.
• Create unique trackable links in the ‘track ID’ section. 

The Paxful Affiliate Program is an exciting opportunity for users to be rewarded for sharing their Paxful affiliate links with their friends and followers.

 

Your Trusted and Blocked list helps you filter your contact list and makes it easier for you to mark whom to trade with on Paxful.

Apart from the various external indicators that can help you decide whether certain users are safe to trade with or not, you can also trust and block users based on your personal experience trading with them.

Trusting Users 

Trusting users you’ve had a good trade experience with, is a good way to stay connected with them. For example, if you constantly find that a user trades efficiently with you, you can then mark that user as your trusted user. In this way, their offers will be prioritized in your feed. When creating offers, there are also options where you can choose to show your offer only to your list of trusted buyers.

Trusting users is a way to make real connections with them, but just like in real life, be careful whom you trust on Paxful.

Blocking Users

While trusting users is the way to build a healthy trade relationship with decent traders, blocking is for the contrary. If you’ve had a bad experience trading with someone (e.g. it wasn’t as efficient as you’d hoped for, or if you were scammed), you can block that particular user. If you block a vendor, they will not be able to see your offers on their list. Similarly, if you block a buyer, you won’t be able to see their offers on your list.

Blocking is a way to ensure that the bad apples don’t bother you.

To trust or block a user follow these steps:

1. Click on the username on any page (offer list, trade chat, past trades in your dashboard, etc.)
   The user profile opens.
2. Click Trust or Block links under the username to mark the user as trusted, or to block them respectively.
   

To view and manage your blocked and trusted list, go to your Contact list.

For more information on how to improve your trading experience, please read our safety tips and instructions for good offer terms.

Two-factor authentication (2FA) via SMS will no longer be supported starting November 14th, 2022. To secure your account, we highly recommend setting your 2FA up with Google Authenticator (GA) or Authy. Alternatively, although it’s less secure than GA or Authy, you can enable 2FA via email. 

If you don’t get the chance to change your settings, starting on November 10, we’ll be sending your codes to your email instead of SMS. For those who use a combination of 2FA via SMS and Google Authenticator or Authy, your codes will be redirected to Google Authenticator or Authy instead.

 

Two Factor Authentication (2FA) is an additional layer of security where the user must verify that they own the account with a code. 2FA is often used to protect the user’s credentials, information, and any resources within the system. Only the user can access their specific 2FA alert, which is sent via Authy, Google Authenticator, or email. 

2FA is a secondary layer of security used to safehold your account. With an authenticator, you receive a code you will need to input to log in to your account or complete any trades. 

There are several different types of authenticators or 2FA methods you can use. The three options are:

• Google Authenticator
• Twilio Authy
• Email

To set up 2FA, you’ll need to first set up your security questions in your account settings. 

 

Google Authenticator is an application that implements two-step verification services for our users as an added layer of security. It uses a time-based one-time password algorithm and HMAC-based one-time password algorithm for authenticating users of mobile applications by Google.

To set up 2FA with Google Authenticator (GA) follow the steps below:

Google Authenticator Requirements:

• Download the GA app for Android or iOS

Setting up Google Authenticator:

1. Once the GA app is installed, login into your Paxful account on a different device.
   
2.  Hover over your username on the top right corner of the page and click Settings from the menu.
   
   
3. On the settings menu, click Security.
   
   
4. On the security page, under Two-factor authentication (2FA) settings, choose Google Authenticator.
   
   
5. Click Activate now and a QR code appears.
   
6. Scan the QR code with your phone by using the Google Authenticator app. A 6-digit code will appear on the app or you can copy the code for manual setup.
   
   
7. Enter the 6-digit code into the field below the QR code. Your code will be automatically submitted once you input the code.
8. Once your code is automatically submitted, a menu will appear.
   To verify that 2FA via GA is turned on, make sure it says Activated. For more security, check all the toggles under the Enable 2FA column.
   
9. When all toggles are blue, you’re done! 2FA via Google Authenticator is set up. 

 

Enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) can greatly enhance your account security. We recommend using Authy as it's more secure. To set up 2FA with Twilio Authy follow the steps below: 

Twilio Authy Requirements:

• Download the Authy app

Setting up Authy:

1. Login to your Paxful account on a different device. 
2.  Hover over your username on the top right of the page and click    Settings from the menu.
   
   
3. On the settings menu, click Security
   
4.  On the security page, under Two-factor authentication (2FA) settings, choose Authy.
   
   

5. Click Activate now and a QR code appears.
   
   

6. Scan the QR code with your phone by using the Authy app. A 6-digit code will appear on the app or you can copy the code for manual setup.
   
7. Enter the 6-digit code into the field next to the QR code. Your code will be automatically submitted once you input the code.
8. Once your code is automatically submitted, a menu will appear.
   To verify that 2FA via Twilio Authy is turned on, make sure it says Activated. For more security, check all the toggles under the Enable 2FA column.
   
   
9. When all toggles are blue, you’re done! 2FA via Twilio Authy is set up.
    
   

   Note:

   To troubleshoot 2FA with Authy, visit our help center page.
   
   

    

To set up 2FA with email, follow the steps below:

Setting up 2FA with email:

1. Login to your Paxful account.

2. Hover over your username on the top right of the page and click on the    Settings button.

3. In the Settings menu, click on  Security.

4. On the Security page, under Two-factor authentication (2FA) settings, choose Email.

5. Click Activate now.

6. Click on Enable 2FA via email and a menu will appear. 

 

To verify that 2FA via email is turned on, make sure it says Activated. For more security, check all the toggles under the Enable 2FA column.

7. You’ll receive a code in the email you used to create your Paxful account.

8. Input the 6-digit code found in the email.

9. When all the toggles are blue, you’re done! 2FA via email is set up.

 

Have problems with your two-factor authentication (2FA)? Here's how to troubleshoot 2FA via SMS, Authy, or Google Authenticator.

Google Authenticator and Authy

If your GA codes don’t work, it might be because the time on your Google Authenticator app is not synced correctly with your device. Make sure to check the clock and set it to the correct time zone. An incorrect clock can cause codes to be out of sync.

Email

If you’re having issues receiving a 2FA via email code, please check the following:

• Make sure your inbox is not full. 
• Make sure emails from Paxful are not going into your spam folder. 
• Make sure your email is verified on your Paxful account.

SMS

2FA via SMS is no longer supported on Paxful. If you had 2FA via SMS enabled, we’ll be sending your codes to your email instead. 

For those who use a combination of 2FA via SMS and Google Authenticator or Authy, your codes will be redirected to Google Authenticator or Authy instead. 

If you haven’t been using 2FA via Google Authenticator or Authy or your email is not verified on your Paxful account, please contact our support team to reset your 2FA.