First published 10 August 2023, the week the token launched. Expanded in October 2026 for the Solana copy and for the freeze switch, which is in the contract and not in the press release. PayPal USD is a token that tries to stay near one US dollar. Paxos issues it. PayPal puts it in front of PayPal customers. The reserves, Paxos says, are dollar deposits, short-term US Treasuries, and similar cash. Redemption for dollars is a Paxos process for the customers Paxos allows, not a button that turns a token in any wallet into a bank transfer.
PayPal’s PYUSD is another company dollar token is the week it launched. Stablecoins: useful, not magic is the category. What is USDC? and What is Tether (USDT)? are the other two large company dollars. PYUSD is not either of them.
Two companies, one ticker
PayPal is the brand and the app. Paxos Trust is the issuer. At launch, Paxos was a New York limited-purpose trust overseen by the state’s financial regulator. Paxos has since described the issuer as a national trust bank supervised by the OCC. A charter is a licence to be a trust company. It is not deposit insurance on the token in your wallet, and it is not a promise that PayPal’s app will always let the token out.
Inside the PayPal or Venmo app, the balance can be one number even when the tokens sit on more than one chain. That number is the company’s database until you withdraw. An exchange balance is an IOU, not a wallet. The app has, from the start, been offered to eligible customers in the places PayPal names. “PayPal” in the title is not a statement that every PayPal account in every country can hold it.
Ethereum and Solana are different tokens
PYUSD launched as an ERC-20 on Ethereum. In May 2024 Paxos issued it on Solana as well. Withdrawing is a choice of chain. The PayPal balance that hid the choice does not hide it once the tokens have left. An Ethereum address will not receive the Solana token. What is Solana (SOL)? is that other notebook. The wrong network is still the wrong city.
On Ethereum the contract lets the issuer freeze an address and wipe a frozen balance, which burns those tokens. On Solana the mint has a freeze authority and a permanent delegate that can move or burn tokens in accounts. Paxos has said it does not freeze on its own whim, and that the switch is for legal orders. The switch is still in the code. A frozen balance stays visible and does not move. Freezing one address does not halt Ethereum or Solana.
A monthly reserve report is an accountant’s snapshot of what the issuer says it held. It is not your account. The GENIUS Act is a stablecoin statute. It is not MiCA, and it is not a dollar. Nothing here is an instruction to buy, redeem, or hold PYUSD.
