Paxful Holdings Inc. pleads guilty to federal charges and agrees to pay a total of $7.5 million in fines (including a $4 million criminal fine to the U.S. Department of Justice and a $3.5 million civil penalty to FinCEN). Prosecutors claim that Paxful facilitated approximately $3 billion in transactions from 2017 to 2019, with around $17 million flowing to illegal sex trafficking websites like Backpage, while the platform consistently evaded compliance and failed to file suspicious activity reports as required. Sentencing is scheduled for February 10, 2026, and co-founder Artur Schaback pleaded guilty to related charges in July 2024. (Decrypt)