Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange Paxful has removed Ether ETHtickers, Ethereum’s native token, from its marketplace for $1,210, citing several concerns about the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful, announced the move in a message to around 11.6 million platform users, which he later shared on Twitter.
We finally kicked #ethereum off our marketplace. 11.6m humans safer. Integrity over revenue 🤝🏽 Who is next ? pic.twitter.com/JTJXa5RYJ8
— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) December 21, 2022
Youssef highlighted three key concerns surrounding the Ethereum ecosystem that prompted the market to delist ETH, citing Paxful’s intent to uphold its integrity and efforts to combat global “economic apartheid” powered by fiat currency systems: “I want to see a world where bitcoin liberates billions of people held captive by this evil system, especially those who have been needlessly harmed and live in the Global South. Ethereum’s transition from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus was the first reason given Youssef stated that PoW is the “innovation that makes Bitcoin the only honest money out there” and that the transition from Ethereum to PoS ETH into a “digital form of fiat.”
Youssef also criticized Ethereum for not being decentralized, citing the protocol’s ability to facilitate asset tokenization as a driver of fraud and fraud across the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The ETH-generated tokens were frauds that defrauded people of billions of dollars. They have robbed bitcoin of valuable momentum and cost us years in our mission. The CEO of Paxful was also a strong proponent of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency self-custody after the FTX crash in November 2022. Youssef implored cryptocurrency users to move BTC holdings to self-custody, and Paxful users are also encouraged to do this in a moment.
