PayPal USD (PYUSD) Review
Regulated issuer behind a consumer brand
of 10
PYUSD is issued and custodied by Paxos Trust Company, backed by US dollar deposits, Treasuries and cash equivalents, with a monthly reserve self-report from Paxos alongside a monthly attestation from an independent accounting firm.
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Issuer
Paxos Trust Company, N.A.
Backing
US dollar deposits, US treasuries and similar cash equivalents
Reporting
Monthly Paxos self-report plus monthly independent attestation
Redemption
1 PYUSD for 1 USD within PayPal
Attesting firm
Not named on this page
Scores
Each criterion carries equal weight. The overall score is the average of these 5 scores — (9.0 + 8.0 + 8.0 + 7.0 + 9.0) ÷ 5 = 8.2.
Pros
- Issuance and custody performed by Paxos Trust Company, N.A., a regulated trust
- Two layers of monthly reporting: issuer self-report plus independent attestation
- Backing stated specifically as USD deposits, US treasuries and cash equivalents
- 1 PYUSD buys and sells for 1 USD within PayPal
Cons
- Redemption is stated within PayPal rather than directly with the issuing trust
- The independent accounting firm is not named on the page we checked
- Practical use is bound to the PayPal ecosystem
A consumer wrapper on a regulated issuer
PayPal states that issuance and custody of PYUSD are performed by Paxos Trust Company, N.A. The brand on the token is PayPal's; the regulated entity behind it is the same one that issues USDP, which is why the two score similarly on backing model.
Two reports rather than one
Paxos self-reports the reserve composition monthly after each month end, and an independent third-party accounting firm issues a separate monthly attestation. Publishing both an issuer statement and an external check is better practice than either alone.
The ecosystem constraint
Buying and selling at 1:1 is stated within PayPal. That makes the peg practically accessible to PayPal users and less so to everyone else.
Who issues PYUSD?
PYUSD carries PayPal's brand but is issued and custodied by Paxos, the New York trust company founded in 2012 by Charles Cascarilla, Rich Teo and Emil Bafna. Paxos holds the first NYDFS limited-purpose trust charter for digital assets, granted in 2015, and a national trust charter under the OCC — the regulated infrastructure that lets a consumer brand like PayPal put its name on a stablecoin without operating the reserve itself.
How it compares
Gemini Dollar (GUSD)
Named auditor, named regulator, named custodians
Ripple USD (RLUSD)
Dual regulatory approval with a named custodian
USD Coin (USDC)
Instrument-level reserve disclosure
Pax Dollar (USDP)
Cash-only reserves with unconditional redemption
Global Dollar (USDG)
Supervised in Singapore and under MiCA in Europe
First Digital USD (FDUSD)
Bankruptcy-segregated reserves in a Hong Kong trust
Tether (USDT)
The largest supply, the thinnest disclosure cadence
Sky USDS
Crypto-collateralised with public collateral data
Ethena USDe
Synthetic dollar, and says so
Sources
Scored from published primary sources rather than hands-on use. Every figure above comes from one of the pages below, on the date shown. Manufacturers change prices and specifications without notice — if something here no longer matches the source, tell us and we will correct it.
- 1.PayPal — PayPal USD official page — checked
- 2.Paxos — company (issuer of PYUSD) — checked
Frequently asked questions
Who issues PayPal USD?
PayPal states that issuance and custody of PayPal USD are performed by Paxos Trust Company, N.A.
How often are PYUSD reserves reported?
Paxos self-reports the reserve composition monthly after each month end, and an independent third-party accounting firm issues monthly attestation reports.
Nothing here is financial advice. Editorial policy · How we score · How we're funded.