Crypto trading platform BitMart
has announced the integration of peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin marketplace Paxful onto its exchange as the two companies
look to increase liquidity and scalability, they said on Thursday.
The integration will allow users to make payments via Paxful
on the BitMat platform. Customers of BitMart will have more payment options to
choose from, while Paxful’s customers will gain direct access to the digital
asset trading platform and over 180 additional trading pairs.
The two companies said the goal of this collaboration is to
provide customers with a broader range of functionalities and opportunities.
“BitMart has always been a mission to offer convenient and
secure financial services in the crypto market. An integration with a
revolutionary company such as Paxful allows us to bring digital asset trading
to those who would otherwise not have had the access,” said Sheldon Xia,
founder and CEO of BitMart.
Launched in 2017, BitMart is a crypto-to-crypto trading
platform headquartered in the Cayman Islands with branch offices in China,
South Korea and the US. The company claims more than 600,000 customers
worldwide and over
US$70 million in daily trading volume.
“With this partnership, investors will now have direct
access to multiple payment approaches including bank transfers, gift cards,
debit/credit cards, and cash deposits, lowering the barriers to entry for new
adopters of digital currency investment,” Xia added.
Paxful is a P2P marketplace that allows users to buy bitcoin
directly from other people. It’s a listing service like Craigslist where
sellers list their ads to sell bitcoins and select the payment methods they
wish to accept, whether that’s PayPal, debit cards, bank transfers or even gift
cards.
Buyers can search for deals based on their preferred payment
method. Once payment is made, the bitcoins are released directly from escrow to
the buyer’s Paxful wallet. Paxful charges no fee from buyers. Sellers pay a 1%
fee.
Paxful focuses mainly on emerging markets and unbanked populations. It claims one million monthly active users globally.
“We’re excited to integrate with BitMart in efforts to bring
more trading options to emerging markets,” said Ray Youssef, CEO and co-founder
of Paxful. “It has always been our mission to provide financial freedom
worldwide and we see this as the next big step in the financial revolution.”
In the past year, Paxful has been ramping up its expansion
efforts in Africa, launching
a blockchain incubation hub in 2018 to provide a co-working space and services
including mentorship, corporate and individual blockchain training, and
networking for initial coin offering (ICO) advisors.
Youssef told
CoinDesk in December 2018 that African bitcoin traders accounted for 41% of all
of the platform’s new users in 2018. That same year, the platform’s user base
almost tripled in Ghana with 41,243 accounts and more than doubled in Nigeria
to 321,476 accounts.
In 2017, Paxful launched
the #BuiltwithBitcoin charitable program, encouraging the cryptocurrency
community to contribute funds for humanitarian projects. It inaugurated the
initiative with a donation of US$50,000 for the construction of a Rwanda
nursery school.
Earlier this month, Paxful completed
the second out of the hundred schools it aims to build throughout Africa.