I’m advising our users to move their Bitcoin to self-custody, says Paxful CEO

• Cryptocurrency exchanges have lost roughly 100k bitcoins since the FTX incident occurred.

• Paxful’s CEO has advised users to move their bitcoins to external wallets.

• Binance is the exchange with the highest number of on-chain bitcoins.

Users should move their bitcoins to external wallets

Ray Youssef, the CEO of crypto exchange Paxful, has gone against the trend by advising users to switch to self-custody.

Self-custody will see users move their bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies to external hardware wallets. 

Will be sending an email every week strongly advising our people to never keep savings on any exchange, including @paxful This is the way ! Self custody your savings ALWAYS! pic.twitter.com/DI95Gaa5Y6

— Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) December 11, 2022

In his tweet on Sunday, Youssef said he would be sending a weekly email to Paxful users, advising them to move their bitcoins to self-custody. 

Since the FTX collapse, several cryptocurrency exchanges have been making moves to ensure they protect user assets. Others have been carrying out proof of reserve to prove that they have crypto assets on their platforms. 

Last week, Binance, the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, released its proof of reserve systems. The OKX exchange also added a new Proof of Reserves (PoR) page to its website. The exchange also provided details about OKX’s PoR audits and introduced its custodial wallet.

Youssef said he intends to stand out from others in the cryptocurrency industry by promoting self-custody. He said;

“My sole responsibility is to help and serve you. That’s why today I’m messaging all of our [Paxful] users to move your Bitcoin to self-custody. You should not keep your saving on Paxful, or any exchange, and only keep what you trade here.”

He added that he would never touch users’ funds on his platform. Youssef said he would be sending out weekly emails to Paxful users, urging them against storing their bitcoins on paxful or other crypto exchanges. 

Despite urging users to focus on self-custody, Youssef assured Paxful users that their assets are perfectly safe on the platform.

Binance remains the exchange with the largest on-chain Bitcoin assets

Cryptocurrency exchanges have lost over $1 billion worth of bitcoin since the FTX exchange collapsed. 

According to data obtained from Coinglass, the total number of bitcoins on crypto exchanges currently stands at 1.96 million, down from the 2.1 million recorded on November 7th. 

Binance remains the crypto exchange with the highest Bitcoin holdings, with 576,999 bitcoins currently held on the platform. Coinbase (478,093 BTC) and Bitfinex (348,987) come second and third, respectively.