General

Paxful is the leading peer-to-peer marketplace that lets you directly trade Bitcoin with people like you, all over the world. The community is 10 million strong and growing every day!

So what can you actually do on Paxful's platform?

• Connect with other Pax Citizens to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), and USD Coin (USDC).
• When selling cryptocurrency, you decide the price and the payment methods you'll accept. You control your financial future on Paxful!
• Store your cryptocurrency in our free Wallet and transfer coins to other Paxful wallets for free!
• No bank? No problem. With Paxful, you can use over 400 payment methods, including PayPal and other eWallets, prepaid debit cards, and gift cards.
• With our escrow system and dedicated Customer Support team, Paxful is also extremely secure, and we’re constantly working to keep it that way.

Paxful is built for the people. We aim to improve the financial lives of the 100%, not just the 1%.

Ready to have financial freedom? We'll walk you through signing up with Paxful so you can trade and store various cryptocurrencies.

1. Start at the Paxful Account Registration Page

If you’re starting from the Paxful home page, click Register.

From there, you'll need to create your account with either your phone number or email address.

Once your account is created, you'll receive a free cryptocurrency wallet. This digital wallet is where you will store all of your hard-earned cryptocurrency. To learn more about the functions of this wallet and any restrictions, visit our Help Center’s section on Paxful Wallets. 

2. Verify your Account

Once you've created your account, you'll need to verify your phone number or email address (depending on what you used to create your account) using a code sent to your phone or email.

There are several levels of verification that you can complete. These verification levels allow for different trading opportunities within the marketplace, and the verification process helps the security of the platform.

That’s it! Time to get trading🤘 

Your convenience is one of our top priorities, that's why we've enabled 400+ ways for you to buy and sell cryptocurrency on Paxful. While some payment methods may be restricted based on where you live, you'll still have plenty of ways to trade in our marketplace.

Some of our most popular payment types include:

1. Bank transfers (ACH, wire transfers, etc.)
2. Credit/debit cards
3. Online Wallets (PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, etc.)
4. Gift cards (Amazon, iTunes, Visa, etc.)
5. Altcoins (Ethereum, Litecoin)

Paxful has zero fees when you buy or receive crypto. We also offer a competitive fee structure so you get to keep more of your money.

Trading Cryptocurrency

Buying Cryptocurrency

• When buying cryptocurrency from another user on Paxful, you are buying at a rate set by the sellers themselves. These rates vary based on numerous factors such as your verification status, payment method, currency pair (such as USD, EUR, CNY), and order size.

Selling Cryptocurrency

• This escrow amount is deducted from your Paxful Wallet at the beginning of the trade. Upon successful completion of the trade, Paxful receives the escrow fee. If the trade is not completed, the cryptocurrency is released from escrow back to the cryptocurrency seller—Paxful takes no fee.
• Some kiosk trades may require a fee in addition to Paxful's escrow fee. For more information about kiosk trades, check out this article from our Help Center. 

Sending and Receiving Bitcoin

Sending and Receiving Tether (USDT)

Sending and Receiving USD Coin (USDC)

• USDC is only available to send and receive on the Ethereum network. Make sure that you use an ERC-20 address.

Sending and Receiving Ethereum (ETH)

Lightning

Converting Cryptocurrency 

Paxful Stablecoin

The quoted price you receive from the Stablecoin Counterparty is inclusive of all fees and charges. This quoted price may include additional fees charged by the Stablecoin Counterparty and/or third-party fees necessary to facilitate this transaction. Please note that this is a separate fee from a third party and Paxful is not responsible for nor calculates such third-party fee.

Q: When does the gift card fee increase take effect?

A: The increase will go into effect on December 15th (UTC 12:00)

Q: How much are gift card fees increasing? 

A: Gift card fees are increasing from 4% to 5%. Nothing else will change. The seller of cryptocurrency pays the escrow fee only after the trade is successfully completed. The buyer does not pay a fee. 

Q: Why are gift card fees increasing?

A: Raising fees is never an easy decision but changing the escrow fees on gift cards is in the best interest of Paxful and our commitment to our community to provide the safest, most reliable P2P platform for people to buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies.

Your security is our highest priority, that's why we've taken extreme security measures to keep users safe in the marketplace.

We have a strict verification process that helps ensure we know our customers, an army of dispute and fraud prevention analysts to help make sure trades run smoothly and to keep bad actors away from the marketplace. We also have an escrow feature in place where the crypto being traded is safely held until the trade is complete. This safeguards your money and helps make sure the crypto goes to the right party in case of disputes.

We use BitGo as our wallet service provider, which is one of the most secure and high-tech services on the market. Additionally, we provide you with all means to protect your funds within your Paxful account, like setting up two-factor authentication when you log into your account and send crypto out of your Paxful wallet.

To top it all off, we have some of the best cybersecurity professionals on our team that work around the clock to make sure our users and platform are safe from harm and hackers. 

If you’re looking for more information on your safety in the marketplace, check out these articles:

• How to stay safe on Paxful
• Reporting a problem
• Is my Paxful wallet secure?

Is Paxful trustworthy?

Paxful has an AML policy, we comply with Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") sanctions, we’re a regulated financial entity, and we’re trusted by over 5 million users. See what our users have to say about us through our reviews!

It can be a hassle if your Bitcoin transaction isn’t confirmed immediately. This article will outline what might be causing delays.

Chances are most of your Bitcoin transactions have been quickly confirmed. It takes two confirmations from the network before your balance is fully available in your Paxful wallet. This is the industry standard for a truly secure wallet. This can take anywhere from five minutes to an hour, depending on the Bitcoin network. However, some Bitcoin transactions can take longer to be confirmed by miners. If you believe your transaction is taking longer than usual to be confirmed it could be due to mempool congestion and fees. 

What is Mempool and Mempool Congestion?

Mempool is short for “memory” and “pool”. It is a way for Bitcoin to store unconfirmed transactions before being confirmed in the blockchain. It can be likened to waiting rooms at a doctor's office. 

Mempool congestion is when there are many unconfirmed Bitcoin transactions waiting to be confirmed to the blockchain by miners, and this is similar to when waiting rooms are full of people to see different doctors. Mempool congestion can be caused by two things:

• Transaction volume is high

This means the number of transactions waiting to be confirmed on the blockchain is high, and the volume of confirmations needed can’t be processed fast enough. This can be likened to when doctors are overwhelmed by the number of patients that are in the waiting room.

• Trade hash decreased abruptly

When the trade hash decreases abruptly, it means that there are not enough miners to confirm each transaction. This is similar to when there are not enough doctors to see waiting patients. Because of this the patients or in this case, the Bitcoin confirmations must wait longer.

How Do My Transaction Fees Relate to My Waiting Time?

It’s a misconception that there is one universal mempool. This is not the case as each transaction is unique and miners have different methods of confirming each transaction to the blockchain. With various fees tied to each unique transaction, miners are likely to process transactions with higher fees faster as they collect some of the fees. If you sent or bought a lower amount of Bitcoin and paid a lower fee, you may have to wait longer.

What Should I Do If My Bitcoin Transaction is Unconfirmed?

It’s rare that a transaction never settles on the blockchain, as most transactions will settle within 72 hours. In most cases, Paxful advises you to wait 72 hours before resending the transaction. If the transaction never makes it to the blockchain after 72 hours, your Bitcoin can be found in the wallet it was originally sent from. 

For more information on checking your transaction status, visit our help center article: How to Check Bitcoin Transaction Status