Roshan Dharia, Paxful’s Chief Executive Officer, has resigned after completion of the firm’s successful turnaround amidst threats and their broader implications for personal safety.
Dharia was appointed CEO in May 2023 to lead the restructuring of Paxful which fell victim to shareholder litigation and a subsequent governance dead-lock that left the company in severe financial distress. During his tenure, Roshan Dharia, a seasoned turnaround professional, guided the company through a critical relaunch centered on platform security, regulatory compliance, and the exploration of strategic alternatives.
“Over the last two years, our team successfully led Paxful through a challenging restructuring that gave the company a new life. I’m pleased to leave Paxful well positioned for future leadership to take this historic product to the next phase of its development,” Dharia said.
Paxful has formed a transition committee to immediately begin the search for new executive leadership.
Paxful marketplace now connects over 14 million users across 140+ countries to move, earn, save, and store money – even without a bank account. Founded in 2015, Paxful had at one time closed shop due to a lawsuit by its co-founder Artur Schaback which led to the departure of several of its key staff and security concerns. Apart from the regulation pains, litigation and the departure of senior level staff, the engineering and compliance teams were also caught in the crossfires. The feud between Paxful two co-founders Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback led to lapses in management and there were cases of illegal drug use at work. The Paxful co-founders went to court disputing over the company and a new administrator was reportedly found to help the company in its new phase of growth minus its co-founders.
The Paxful co-founders cited irreconcilable co-founder differences and this might be the case till now against anyone who takes their position. Dharia came in as the new CEO to drive change and bringing life to the exchange again leading to signing up over 400 payment methods for accessing Bitcoin, USDT, and other popular digital and local currencies. Dharia now wants all his Paxful history erased from the internet to avoid any threats to his personal life even though erasing online links won’t erase the fact that he drove the company’s revival.