Payments behemoth PayPal plans to offer a 3.7% yield on balances held in its PayPal USD stablecoin.
According to an April 23 Bloomberg report, a PayPal representative said that the measure aims to encourage more usage of the firm’s stablecoin. The program is expected to launch this summer, and the rewards will also be paid out in PayPal USD (PYUSD).
Users will be able to exchange PYUSD for fiat currency, spend it or send it to other users. The rewards will accrue daily and will be paid on a monthly basis. The company hopes this feature will lead to a higher predominance of stablecoin and crypto payments on its platform.
The report follows PayPal USD reaching a $1 billion market cap in the summer of 2024. As of publication, the stablecoin’s market cap is nearly a quarter lower at $873.3 million.
Tzahi Kanza, CEO of crypto investment firm Syndika, told Cointelegraph that “from a regulatory standpoint, PayPal must ensure that offering interest doesn’t cause its stablecoin to be classified as a security. “When it comes to financial risks for the users, he said that PayPal can keep its promises, and the main risk is losing the peg to the dollar rather than interest-related issues. He said:
“Stablecoins that don’t offer yield are generally not considered securities. However, yield-bearing stablecoins may fall under that classification.”
Related: PayPal’s Xoom launches cross-border stablecoin settlement
PayPal is betting on crypto
PayPal is betting on blockchain technology with its continued product development. Reports from earlier in April show that PayPal has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to include Chainlink (LINK) and Solana (SOL), giving US-based users the ability to buy, sell and transfer the popular tokens.
In fact, PayPal was cited by Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron as one of the catalysts for the stablecoin industry’s rapid growth in recent years. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Boiron said, “Companies like Stripe and PayPal integrating stablecoins is likely the primary catalyst for their growth.”
Related: PayPal, Ernst & Young settle first corporate payment via PYUSD stablecoin
The story of PayPal USD
PYUSD is a US dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Paxos Trust Company on behalf of PayPal in August 2023. At the time of the launch, PayPal became the first major payment network to launch its own stablecoin, with Venmo rolling out support in September 2023.
Each token is purportedly backed one-to-one by cash deposits, short-term US Treasury notes and similar cash-equivalent assets in accounts overseen by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Initially, PYUSD was a token compliant with the ERC-20 Ethereum standard, but has since also been deployed on Solana (SOL).
PayPal USD’s current market cap is still a far cry from the top stablecoin, Tether’s USDt (USDT). At the time of writing, CoinMarketCap data shows that USDT’s market cap stands at $145.3 billion, over 17,255% higher than PYUSD’s. Kanza said that “Tether’s strength lies in its market dominance — not in its regulatory compliance, transparency, or yield” since it does not offer those. He added:
“To compete effectively, targeting these three areas — compliance, transparency and returns — would be a smart strategy [for PayPal.]“
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