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Paxos Trust Company launched PAX Gold a crypto-asset redeemable for physical gold approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Each token is backed by one fine troy ounce of London Good Delivery Gold.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has granted the first "conditional BitLicense" to PayPal for a partnership with Paxos Trust Company enabling customers to buy and sell crypto-assets. Now New York State-chartered Paxos will be able to provide trading and custodial services to PayPal to allow the latter's 325-plus million customers to buy, sell, and hold crypto-assets. Four NYDFS-approved digital assets will be initially available: bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ether and litecoin. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202010211

Facebook's Novi launched its retail payment app yesterday (October 19) going with Paxos' USDP stablecoin as its transactional currency while it awaits regulatory approval for its own Diem stablecoin. However, almost immediately, US Senate Democrats addressed a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg questioning the company's credibility with crypto, and calling for the immediate discontinuance of the Novi pilot and a commitment not to bring Diem to market. Diem replied by clarifying that Diem is an independent organization with Facebook's Novi being just one of more than two dozen members of the Diem Association, so that Novi's pilot with Paxos is unrelated to Diem. The response went on to say that "When Diem comes to market [Diem] will do so having reflected the feedback of regulators from around the world and with confidence that Diem's payment system is secure, will protect consumers, and will combat financial crime."

Also, according to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued Paxos a Wells Notice for allegedly selling unregistered securities by issuing BUSD. That characterization  typically hinges on the Howey Test, under which an investment contract exists if there is an "investment of money in a common enterprise with a reasonable expectation of profits to be derived from the efforts of others."

The company behind the Paxos Standard (PAX) stablecoin announced that its users can now instantaneously redeem unlimited amounts of its tokens for United States dollars.

Stablecoin issuers including Coinbase, Paxos and Terra are planning to change directions as a result of consumer interest in using stablecoins as a mean of payment rather than simply for trading. St

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted Paxos provisional approval for a federal bank charter that will allow it to conduct business across state lines. This is the third such charter granted to a crypto company, after custody firm Anchorage in January, and trading and lending firm Protego in February. https://www.occ.treas.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2021/nr-occ-2021-49.html

Paxos Trust, a blockchain company that caters to financial institutions, has been given the green light to settle stock trades in near real-time in a direct threat to the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.'s half-century equity market dominance.

It's clear regulators prefer interacting with banks because banks are centralized and easy to control. Reading between the lines, the real risk stablecoins pose is creating a system less amenable to government efforts of control. But technological progress is not going to stop. Economic activity is simply going to move elsewhere in the world if we continue down this path. United States regulators believe they face a choice between allowing or banning stablecoins, but in reality they face a choice between allowing stablecoins onshore or having them be primarily offshore. Already, the biggest winner of the current U.S. attack on crypto is likely Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer with a less-than-reputable past. Stablecoin tether (USDT) is growing again while Circle's USDC and the Paxos-issued BUSD, both of which are more transparent, more regulated and safer for consumers, are shrinking.

Binance, in partnership with the Paxos Trust Company, is launching a dollar-backed stablecoin in the U.S. with the blessing of the New York Department of Financial Services.

PayPal is entering the crypto-asset market with its own "PayPal USD" (PYUSD) U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin. The Ethereum-based token will be available to PayPal users in the U.S., who will be able to transfer PYUSD between PayPal and supported external wallets, fund goods and services purchases, or convert any of PayPal's supported crypto-assets to and from PYUSD. PYUSD is issued by New York-based Paxos Trust and fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term Treasuries and similar cash equivalents, and will be redeemable on demand for dollars. https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/2023-08-07-PayPal-Launches-U-S-Dollar-Stablecoin

Ontology will launch Paxos Standard (PAX), a regulated USD stablecoin, on the Ontology blockchain, in May.

According to data shared by Jason Choi - a Wharton School graduate that is the Head of Research at crypto hedge fund The Spartan Group - there is now just shy of $1 billion worth of Tether "sitting on the sidelines on Binance alone." This doesn't count the other stablecoins that platform supports, including Binance USD, USD Coin, Paxos Dollar, and more.

Ever since Bitcoin crashed to $3,850 in mid-March, fiat-backed stablecoins have been printing like crazy, with their market cap growing at a fast speed. During this time, the market cap of Paxos has surged 20% and USDT's 40%. While Circle and Coinbase's USDC market cap jumped 55%, Binance's stablecoin BUSD saw the biggest spike of 85%.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has approved the application of Bakkt Marketplace for virtual currency and money transmitter licenses. First granted to Paxos in 2015, the BitLicense is New York's program for regulating virtual currency firms. With it, Bakkt will have new access to offer crypto trading in the financial center of the United States. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202103111

"BitGo obtained a New York Trust (becoming a New York Limited Liability Trust Company) from New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to operate as an independent, regulated qualified custodian under New York State Banking Law. The Trust Charter enables BitGo to provide custodial services for New York clients who need to secure large amounts of digital assets with designated entities that offer the highest level of security, regulatory oversight and operational efficiency. Additionally, a New York Trust Charter allows a company to provide custodial services in many other states without obtaining additional licenses. To date NYDFS has only approved a handful of Trust Charters for companies engaged in virtual currency business activity, including Gemini, Coinbase and Paxos."

Venmo's "Crypto on Venmo" starts to roll out today (April 20, 2021) and will be available to its 70 million customers directly in the Venmo app within the next few weeks. The service will let its users buy, hold and sell crypto-assets (BTC, ETH, LTC and BCH) within its mobile app, using funds from their balance with Venmo, or a linked bank account or debit card. Similar to its parent company's (PayPal) app, Crypto on Venmo is enabled through a partnership with Paxos, which facilitates the transactions behind the scene.

As the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reviews recent interpretive letters on digital assets and trust charters, Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu reportedly said "everything's on the table," including reviewing provisional approvals already granted under prior acting agency leadership. "Charters that were in the pipeline as well as those that were conditionally approved" are "in the scope of the review." For example, cryptocurrency firms Anchorage, Paxos and Protego have received conditional approvals for national trust charters to custody digital assets.

"Neither USDC nor Tether is a regulated digital asset, for the simple reason that neither token has a regulator. In fact, neither USDC nor Tether tokens are "stablecoins" in anything other than name. These tokens are backed by illiquid and risky debt obligations - a critical weakness that no prudential regulator would allow to exist as this creates undue risk for their customers."

"The SEC has put significant limits on Paxos's experiment. Only about 140 of the most actively traded, least volatile stocks, like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Bank of America Corp. , are eligible for the project. The number of trades Paxos can settle will also be capped at 1% of average daily trading volume of those stocks, according to the SEC's letter."