This article will walk you through the process of buying Bitcoin on Paxful using M-Pesa. It includes tips on how to trade safely on the platform.
Some Paxful vendors in Kenya sell Bitcoins for as little as KShs 100; you just need to look for them.
To buy Bitcoin with M-pesa on Paxful, you’ll need to have a SIM card set up for M-Pesa through supported network providers (Safaricom and Vodacom) and follow the steps below:
- Create a Paxful account. You can use the Paxful account without indentity verifaction (uploading a photo of your ID) for Bitcoin purchases for up to 1000 USD. If you want to increase this limit you have to upload a photo of your personal ID.
- Go to buy Bitcoin with M-pesa and select your preferred currency from the currency dropdown
- Enter the amount you’d like to buy in your currency and below you’ll see a selection of sellers based on their trading limits.
- Once you’ve found the right seller, click the corresponding Buy button.
- Read the recent feedback and overall reputation of the seller. Also, read the terms of the seller. Don’t buy from sellers with bad comments.
- Once you have verified that the seller can be trusted, click on Buy Now button and the trade will be opened.
- Send the exact amount to the vendors M-Pesa account before the trade expires
- Click the blue PAID button and provide a transaction confirmation (screenshot, reference number, etc.)
- The coins will be sent to your Paxful wallet once the vendor has verified the trade.
You can communicate using the live chat screen to get the seller’s M-Pesa account where the funds should be sent and also clear your doubts.
If you wish to cancel the trade, simply click CANCEL.
In most cases, releasing Bitcoin will happen in minutes when making payment with M-Pesa. When a trade is opened, the amount of Bitcoins to be traded are automatically transferred to a secure escrow wallet owned by Paxful.
If you haven’t made payment and/or provided payment proof within the time limit, the trade will be automatically cancelled and the crypto funds would be sent back to the vendor’s Paxful wallet. Once the vendor has released the Bitcoins to your Paxful wallet, you should see a change in your balance displayed at the top right of the page.
You can also visit paxful.com/wallet and you’ll see something similar to this: 
Sometimes it doesn’t reflect immediately, so you should wait a few minutes before refreshing the page. Seen it now? Hurray, you’ve successfully completed a Paxful trade!
How to Avoid Getting Scammed on Paxful
As with every P2P platform, there are ‘scammy’ users on Paxful, so you need to be extremely careful when dealing with vendors. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
- Never mark the trade as completed until the Bitcoin reflects in your Paxful wallet. This is a mistake most scam victims make; they get a transaction screenshot and complete the trade in haste.
- Be wary of vendors who haven’t verified their account (email, phone number and ID verification).
- Before opening a trade, read through their feedback report to know other users’ experiences with the vendor.
- Ensure you read and clearly understand the offer terms (take note of the time limit) and chat with the vendor to clear your doubts.
- Vendors with an unusual amount of negative feedback are generally shady; avoid them like a plague.
We hope this article helped you to buy Bitcoin with Mpesa using Paxful. Good luck with your trades.