In an announcement this week, PayPal has announced its plans to roll out its own PayPal Coin that will be supported by the U.S. dollar.
The latest platform to get involved
In a push towards greater online safety and security, PayPal has confirmed it is working on its own stablecoin. The company already provides its customers with the opportunity to buy and sell goods and services through its platform with a number of existing cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
No additional details were provided at the time of the announcement including when the stablecoin will be released to the public or whether it will eventually be available on a centralised exchange such as Coinbase or Gemini.
In doing so, it becomes the latest platform to launch its own stablecoin after Facebook and Meta’s somewhat stalled efforts with Libra and Diem and Amazon’s long-standing Amazon Coins which was first launched in 2013.
A fast-growing trend
Stablecoins are, put simply, cryptocurrencies that peg their market value to an external reference, physical asset, or currency such as the U.S. dollar. Because of this, they tend to avoid the frequent price fluctuations that are commonly associated with existing cryptocurrencies.
It may be too early to tell whether investing in PayPal’s stablecoin will be a wise choice but with research suggesting the company is the second most trusted brand throughout the world, beating both Visa and Mastercard, and is already equipped with world-class payment processing infrastructure, it certainly has the foundations for global success.
It also benefits from existing relationships within the wider retail and e-commerce world which would make its current venture further into the cryptocurrency sphere something of a logical next for the company.
