Ray Youssef, the founder of Paxful, a peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange, now claims he has lost five bank accounts.

In a tweet on March 20, Ray added that his close friends are also targeted and barred from opening bank accounts. For this development, the founder claims that there could be more risk of apartheid if countries start rolling out central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). 

I have lost five bank accounts, and now my friends are losing bank accounts by association. As bad as this is, this economic segregation will morph into outright apartheid in the west with CDBCs. They can cut off a whole social cluster because one uses bitcoin.

A CBDC is a form of digitized money controlled by the central bank and rolled out in a private or public blockchain, depending on the issuer’s needs. These tokens will allow central banks to distribute funds directly to citizens without using intermediaries like regional banks. 

While this innovation is laudable and a progressive move, the centralized nature of CBDCs and the ability of the central bank to monitor citizens’ bank accounts empower governments even more. It is a concern that Youssef shares after he lost his accounts and his associates barred from opening bank accounts simply because one of them is “using bitcoin.”

It is not immediately clear why Youssef lost his accounts and where those bank accounts were domiciled. At the same time, he didn’t divulge the amount he was forced to shift to other crypto-friendly banks or cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin. 

However, what’s known is that he runs one of the world’s largest peer-to-peer exchanges enabling users from around the globe to trade various cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, without an intermediary. 

Some have blamed the founder for losing his bank accounts, saying he ought to have maintained a low profile. Even though what the banks did is illegal, his online presence and comments on crypto make him an easy target, especially considering his association with the P2P crypto exchange.

Last week, amid the banking crisis in the United States, Paxful allowed traders to change over $35 million worth of cryptocurrencies. 

The platform is widely used in countries such as Argentina, Venezuela, and sub-Saharan Africa, where inflation is challenging. Recent data shows that inflation in Argentina has soared above 100% for the first time since the end of hyperinflation in the 1990s.

In December 2022, Paxful delisted Ethereum from its platform. The founder said the coin is a security and centralized, following the blockchain’s shift to proof-of-stake.

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