Last edited: Jan 11, 2022

PayPal, online payments behemoth, is making strides in the crypto world again. This time, the company is planning to launch its own USD-backed stablecoin, potentially named “PayPal Coin.”

In a statement released to Bloomberg News, PayPal’s senior VP of crypto and digital currencies, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, stated that PayPal was exploring stablecoins with regulators on board.

“We are exploring a stablecoin; if and when we seek to move forward, we will of course, work closely with relevant regulators.”

The evidence of PayPal exploring options to launch its own stablecoin was first discovered in PayPal’s app by developer Steve Moser, who found hidden code and images showing work on what is called a “PayPal Coin.”

A PayPal spokeswoman addressed this discovery by Moser, stating that the PayPal Coin project stemmed from a recent internal hackathon in which engineers built new projects that may or may not see a public release. In the case where PayPal Coin does work its way to become an official PayPal product, its naming, logos, and features could be modified from its minimum viable product (MVP) form.

Seeing that PayPal had been actively engaging in the crypto space recently, it makes sense from a business perspective for PayPal to derive its own stablecoin, particularly one that focuses on supporting secure, efficient, and scalable crypto payments solution.

However, for PayPal to realize its vision of building such a stablecoin, it would require extensive regulatory frameworks and licenses on the legal front, seeing that PayPal is a massive, publicly traded corporation.

PayPal wouldn’t be the first in its tech giant peers to consider launching its own stablecoin. Meta Platforms, previously and more well-known as Facebook, has been developing a stablecoin named Diem, while Visa recently allowed a stablecoin backed by USD to settle transactions within its payments network.

This news doesn’t seem to have affected the crypto market much, as prices of coins are slightly down on the day. However, having more participation from large corporations in the market should be good news for investors, as it would potentially help crypto reach a much larger audience.

Follow BTCC.com for more news and analysis like this article to help inform your investment decisions.