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According to a February 10 Bloomberg News story, payment giant PayPal has put a halt to work on a potential future stablecoin.
Code for a USD-backed “PayPal Coin” was found in the company’s application code more than a year ago, despite PayPal never publicly announcing that initiative. Bloomberg had access to such code and broke the news of the breakthrough in January 2022.
Bloomberg reports that PayPal plans to deploy the stablecoin in the upcoming weeks, though no precise launch date has been given.
The asset was allegedly being worked on the stablecoin issuer and brokerage Paxos, which offers PayPal’s cryptocurrency functionality.
Although not strictly a characteristic of PayPal’s stablecoin, new limits on staking and interest-bearing services may also be advising prudence.
Despite setbacks, PayPal has launched a number of crypto services. It started letting customers invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other currencies exclusively through its own platform in October 2020. Beginning in mid-2022, PayPal customers in the United States will be able to exchange cryptocurrency using other wallets thanks to the company’s increased trading limits and enhanced trading capabilities.
According to recent sources, PayPal currently possesses $604 million in cryptocurrency belonging to its users, including $291 million in Bitcoin and $250 million in Ethereum.