PayPal Says It Is 'Exploring a Stablecoin'
In addition to PayPal Coin, Developer Steve Moser also found another cryptocoin called Neo, within the iOS app. As of yet, it’s not known how much the company developed its stablecoin development. The initial evidence of the source code including a PayPal Coin logo found in the app, was the result of an internal hackathon, within the company's blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies division.
“We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, senior vice president of crypto and digital currencies at PayPal, said in a statement to Bloomberg News.
In 2020, PayPal began enabling users to buy, hold and sell digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash for its US customers. Since then, it has been working on providing this service to other countries. The payments company also extended its crypto payments feature to its subsidiary, Venmo, and created a 'checkout with crypto' feature for paying merchants.
PayPal isn't the first tech giant that’s looking to launch its own stablecoin. Meta, formerly known as Facebook, has long been trying to launch a stablecoin called Diem. However, its Novi subsidiary recently introduced a crypto wallet that uses the Paxos USDP stablecoin instead of the yet-to-launch Diem. Similarly, Visa has also allowed a stablecoin that is backed by the US dollar to settle a transaction along with the network.