PayPal today announced that Venmo users will soon be able to buy the payment platform’s stablecoin.
The company said in a Wednesday statement that Venmo “select users” can already buy PayPal USD (PYUSD), with the option being available to all users “in the coming weeks.”
PYUSD is an Ethereum-based, dollar-pegged stablecoin, backed by cash equivalents and short-term treasuries. PayPal launched PYUSD in August and Paxos Trust Co. issues the token.
Users are already able to buy the stablecoin on top exchanges including Crypto.com, Coinbase, and Kraken.
Venmo is a popular mobile payments app owned by PayPal that allows users to pay friends or merchants. Users will be able to buy the stablecoin and send it to other Venmo users—including to PayPal wallets.
PayPal boasted in its announcement that it would be the first time that users would be able to send stablecoins to each other with no cost. But sending from Venmo to a different crypto wallet, not owned by PayPal, would incur fees, the company added.
“In the first example of a stablecoin enabling wallet interoperability at scale with no cost, transfers between PayPal and Venmo users are fast and free, connecting two wallets with millions of users each,” Wednesday’s statement said.
In the crypto world, a stablecoin is a digital asset pegged to something stable—in this case, the U.S. dollar.
This particular cryptocurrency is used mainly for traders to exit transactions when they don’t immediately have access to fiat currencies held in a traditional bank to make the buying and selling experience more seamless.
PayPal launched the stablecoin in August with the hope of it being “a part of the overall payments infrastructure.”
It still has a long-way to go if it wants to catch up with other giants in the industry: PYUSD’s market cap currently stands at $44.3 million, whereas major stablecoins Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are worth $83.1 billion and $25.9 billion, respectively.
Paxos Trust, said in a report last week that it held $45.3 million in assets backing PYUSD at the end of last month.
PayPal users can also buy and sell Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin on the platform.
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Source: https://decrypt.co/198022/paypal-brings-pyusd-stablecoin-to-venmo