Core Insights - Paxos, PayPal's blockchain partner, mistakenly minted $300 trillion of the PYUSD stablecoin due to a technical error [1][2] - The error was identified and corrected within approximately 20 minutes, with no security breach reported and customer funds deemed safe [2] - PYUSD is a dollar-pegged stablecoin, fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits and similar cash equivalents, redeemable on a 1:1 basis [3] Company Overview - The incident highlights that the dollar peg of PYUSD relies on PayPal and third-party attestation reports rather than the intrinsic minting process [3] - The error raised concerns as $300 trillion would require more than double the world's estimated total GDP to back [4] - PYUSD is currently the sixth-largest stablecoin globally, with a market capitalization exceeding $2.6 billion [4] Industry Context - The mistake occurs at a time when stablecoins are gaining mainstream adoption among banks and payment platforms [4]
PayPal's crypto partner mints a whopping $300 trillion stablecoins in 'technical error'