© Reuters. PayPal suspends its stablecoin project
CriptoFácil – Paypal, one of the largest payment companies in the world, recently announced that it has suspended its plan to issue its own stablecoin. The news comes after months of rumors about the project’s launch.
While PayPal (NASDAQ:) never officially announced this initiative, code for a US dollar-backed “PayPal currency” was discovered in the code of the company’s app more than a year ago. That code even made its way to Bloomberg, which first reported the development in January 2022.
According to a new report from Bloomberg, PayPal was hoping to debut the stablecoin in the coming weeks. However, it chose to delay that launch as it seeks to understand the changing regulatory landscape for these digital assets, according to an anonymous source.
Paxos investigation reportedly delayed PayPal stablecoin
As CriptoFácil reported, New York regulators are investigating Paxos Trust Co., who PayPal was working with in its effort to launch a stablecoin. The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) is investigating the company for issuing Binance’s stablecoin, the . Paxos announced this Monday (13) that it will no longer issue BUSD.
PayPal’s proposal was to launch a stable digital currency so that customers could send and receive payments. The company, however, does not seem to have completely given up on the project. Instead, it would just be postponing plans:
“We are exploring a stablecoin,” Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for PayPal, told Bloomberg. “If and when we seek to move forward, we will, of course, work closely with relevant regulators.”
PayPal and digital assets
PayPal announced last year that the NYDFS had granted the company a “BitLicense,” which allows trading with digital currencies. Despite delays to its stablecoin, PayPal has introduced several crypto features in recent years. In October 2020, for example, the company started to allow users to invest in , and other cryptos through its own platform.
Over time, the company has expanded trading capabilities and increased limits. Also, starting in mid-2022, US PayPal users can send their assets to other wallets.
According to recent reports, PayPal holds $604 million worth of cryptocurrencies from customers. This includes $291 million in Bitcoin (BTC) and $250 million in Ether ().
By CriptoFacil