Most Influential 2021: Ray Youssef

Peer-to-peer bitcoin trading is a powerful force.

AccessTimeIconDec 9, 2021 at 8:26 p.m. UTC
Updated May 11, 2023 at 6:26 p.m. UTC
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Few people expected the Nigerian crypto economy to explode after the country’s central bank and financial regulators banned crypto trading. But it has, and it’s now the eighth-largest crypto market in the world, according to Chainalysis. It continues to grow thanks primarily to peer-to-peer exchanges like Paxful that allow bitcoin to flow easily without touching the banking system. Ray Youssef, the founder and CEO of Paxful, has already taken the exchange global and has worked this year to integrate new features – like Bitcoin’s Lightning network.

(Kevin Ross/CoinDesk)
(Kevin Ross/CoinDesk)

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