TLDR
- PayPal has expanded its stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), to the Solana blockchain, making it available on both Ethereum and Solana networks.
- The move aims to make PYUSD faster and cheaper to use, leveraging Solana’s high transaction speeds and low costs, which are ideal for commerce and payment use cases.
- PayPal and Venmo wallet users will have a chain-agnostic experience, with unified PYUSD balances regardless of the network holding the assets.
- Crypto.com, Phantom, and Paxos are among the first platforms to offer PYUSD on Solana, enabling a seamless fiat-to-crypto experience for consumers and enterprises.
- The expansion of PYUSD to Solana aligns with PayPal’s goal of driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies while providing an easy and secure way to send money at a lower cost.
PayPal, the global payments giant, has announced an expansion of its stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), to the Solana blockchain.
This move marks PayPal’s first venture beyond the Ethereum ecosystem and aims to make PYUSD faster and cheaper to use for its growing user base.
By making PYUSD available on Solana, PayPal is leveraging the blockchain’s high transaction speeds and extremely low costs, which are particularly beneficial for commerce and payment use cases.
Solana is known for processing up to 65,000 transactions per second at costs as low as $0.0025, significantly outperforming Ethereum’s 15 transactions per second with higher fees that can range from $1 to $50 during times of network congestion.
Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of the Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currency Group at PayPal, emphasized the company’s goal of enabling a digital currency with a stable value designed for commerce and payments. “Making PYUSD available on the Solana blockchain furthers our mission,” he stated.
PayPal and Venmo wallet users will enjoy a chain-agnostic experience, with unified PYUSD balances regardless of the network holding the assets. This means that users can seamlessly transfer PYUSD between Ethereum and Solana, depending on their preferences and needs.
Several platforms, including Crypto.com, Phantom, and Paxos, are among the first to offer PYUSD on Solana, enabling a smooth fiat-to-crypto experience for both consumers and enterprises.
This expansion aligns with PayPal’s goal of driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies while providing an easy and secure way to send money at a lower cost.
Solana has emerged as the most used blockchain for stablecoin transfers, with data from analytics platform Artemis showing that stablecoin transfer volume on Solana reached $1.5 trillion over the past year, surpassing Ethereum’s volume of $885 billion during the same period.
However, the Solana network has faced challenges, primarily related to recurring network outages.
To address these issues, an upgrade called Firedancer is set to be released in the coming months, aiming to increase Solana’s overall reliability and scalability.
PayPal initially launched PYUSD in August 2023 in collaboration with Paxos Trust Company.
The stablecoin, backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term Treasurys, and cash equivalents, was initially issued only on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token.
