PayPal[1] is a global e-commerce payments platform founded in 1998 by Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Max Levchin. It was originally known as Confinity Inc. The U.S.-based software service merged with Elon Musk’s online banking company “X.com” in 2000. Soon, rebranded to “PayPal” a year later.
In late 2020, it began enabling users to buy, hold and sell digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It then extended that to its subsidiary, Venmo, and created a “checkout with crypto[2]” feature for paying merchants.
Well, fast forward now, PayPal is a dominant competitor in the crypto payments space. Indeed, a valuable addition to the crypto tree given PayPal’s 377 million users worldwide. The digital payments company has been making a big push to enter the crypto industry. Interestingly, now it’s diversifying its roots.
Hungry for more
The #27 largest company[3] is now exploring the possibility of launching its own stablecoin. In a recent interview[4] with Bloomberg, PayPal confirmed that it is working on its own stablecoin after a developer (Steve Moser) discovered language about a “PayPal Coin” within its iPhone app. Jose Fernandez da Ponte, senior vice president of crypto and digital currencies at PayPal told[5] Bloomberg:
“We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators.”
Meanwhile, a PayPal spokeswoman said that the images and code inside of the PayPal app stemmed from a recent internal hackathon. It wouldn’t necessarily be representative of the final version. That means the ultimate logo, name, and features could change in its public product form.
The aforementioned development doesn’t really come as a surprise. Not so long ago, the senior VP reiterated the same interest[6]
