PayPal expands stablecoin rails with custom token issuance platform

Internet commerce giant PayPal PYPL$52.79 extended its blockchain-based stablecoin effort to include a custom stablecoin developer platform, dubbed PYUSDx, built with the help of fiat-pegged token specialist M0 and crypto payments firm MoonPay, the companies said on Tuesday.

The platform, which gives any business the infrastructure to start a custom stablecoin backed by PayPal USD $PYUSD$0.9995, was first teased back in February.

It’s now going live with tokens issued by crypto native firms Saturn, Concrete and Cap; which bring over $100 million of processed volume to the platform, according to a press release.

As the existing financial world comes onchain, competition is growing beyond the two major stablecoin issuers: Tether and Circle Internet (CRCL). Established payments companies are searching for a strategic advantage, particularly given the aggressive approach taken by payments giant Stripe, for instance.

PayPal, which CoinDesk revealed was the first payments institution to start offering crypto back in 2020, finds itself at a crossroads, where the sensible move is to partner with crypto specialists like M0 and Moonpay and double down on the tech.

PayPal has already been pushing hard with its $PYUSD stablecoin, and the firm is in a unique position to bring this mainstream, considering the enormous reach of Venmo, said Luca Prosperi, CEO of M0, which also works with Stripe-owned Bridge and regulated custody firm Anchorage.

“As more financial institutions are getting involved, this creates fragmentation,” Prosperi said in an interview. “Plus, most of these financial institutions don’t really know how to engage with developers, so we abstract away the complexity and the risk and create a layer in the middle that facilitates integrations with all these new projects.”

PYUSDx tokens are issued by MoonPay Digital Assets Ltd. The platform combines M0’s universal stablecoin and digital token technology with MoonPay’s issuance and distribution infrastructure. Additional companies introducing stablecoins on PYUSDx include USD.AI and Fairblock, according to the release.