In brief
- Nearly $1.5 million worth of Bitcoin have been traded for Tether on the Paxful peer-to-peer exchange.
- Paxful added Tether support just under three weeks ago on September 9.
- Paxful has a substantial user base in Africa and parts of the developing world.
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Paxful, a peer-to-peer marketplace that got its start as a Bitcoin trading platform, has seen enthusiastic uptake in dollar-pegged stablecoin activity following the addition of support for Tether on the platform.
Paxful users have converted nearly $1.5 million in Bitcoin to Tether since the dollar-pegged stablecoin launched on the platform September 9, according to data Paxful shared with Decrypt.
US-based Paxful launched in 2015 and has since become a popular peer-to-peer Bitcoin swap platform in developing parts of the world, allowing users to buy or sell Bitcoin from other individuals they connect with through the service. More than $1 billion worth of Bitcoin were traded in the first six months of 2020, and Paxful has facilitated the exchange of more than $4.5 billion since launch.
The peer-to-peer platform connects users who want to exchange value in various forms, from gift cards to bank transfers; it’s an alternative to services like Coinbase for users looking to swap between Bitcoin and traditional fiat or fiat-denominated assets. The speedy uptick in Tether use shows that Paxful users are eager for more ways to bridge the gap between the worlds of Bitcoin and fiat currency.
Tether is the first and by far the largest of a group of assets known as stablecoins. Often pegged to the US dollar, stablecoins offer a way for crypto users to move value out of more volatile assets like Bitcoin.
The addition of Tether to the Paxful platform allows users who might otherwise lack ready access to stablecoins to hedge their Bitcoin investments and offers a safe haven for accumulated value when the price of Bitcoin drops. Paxful patrons can also use its existing peer-to-peer connection platform to trade Tethers for USD or fiat currencies of equivalent value.
That’s important, given Paxful’s audience. The marketplace has become popular in parts of the world like India and Africa where trading crypto on exchanges or by other means is difficult, due to government regulations or a lack of technical infrastructure. More than 40% of Paxful users hailed from Africa in October 2019.