PayPal Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL) announced that PayPal USD (PYUSD) is now available on the Solana blockchain, making PayPal’s stablecoin faster and cheaper to use.
The availability of PYUSD on Solana provides users “with the choice of multiple blockchains allowing for increased flexibility and control.”
The Solana blockchain is known for “processing massive amounts of transactions at high speeds with extremely low costs, providing significant benefits for commerce use cases.”
As the “most used” blockchain for stablecoin transfers, according to data from blockchain analytics platform Artemis, Solana is said to have “emerged as the leading blockchain to run tokenized transactions and is ideal for PYUSD as it continues to be used for payment use cases.”
Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of the Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currency Group, PayPal said:
“For more than 25 years, PayPal has been at the forefront of digital commerce, revolutionizing commerce by providing a trusted experience between consumers and merchants around the world. PayPal USD was created with the intent to revolutionize commerce again by providing a fast, easy, and inexpensive payment method for the next evolution of the digital economy. Making PYUSD available on the Solana blockchain furthers our goal of enabling a digital currency with a stable value designed for commerce and payments.”
Sheraz Shere, GM of Payments at the Solana Foundation, said:
“The Solana network’s speed and scalability make it the ideal blockchain for new payment solutions that are accessible, cost-effective, and instantaneous. Continued adoption from industry participants like PayPal helps realize the next generation of fintech innovation.”
The simplified experience of PayPal and Venmo wallets “show PYUSD as a unified balance regardless of the blockchain.”
This allows for increased ease of use and when “transferring out to external wallets, users have the choice to send PYUSD on Ethereum or Solana.”
In addition to the PayPal and Venmo wallets, Crypto.com, Phantom and Paxos are three of the first places to buy PYUSD on Solana, “enabling a seamless fiat-to-crypto experience for consumers and enterprises.”
PayPal USD is issued by Paxos Trust Company, “a fully chartered limited purpose trust company.”
Paxos and its products – including expansion to new blockchains – are “subject to regulatory oversight by the New York State Department of Financial Services.”
Reserves for PayPal USD are said to be fully backed “by U.S. dollar deposits, U.S. Treasuries and similar cash equivalents, and PayPal USD can be bought or sold through PayPal and Venmo at a rate of $1.00 per PayPal USD.”
Issuance and custody of PayPal USD is performed “by Paxos Trust Company, LLC.”
PayPal, Inc. is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity “by the New York State Department of Financial Services.”
Buying, selling, transferring, and holding cryptocurrency with PayPal is “not available in Hawaii and where prohibited by law.”
