PayPal has announced that its stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), is now available on the Solana blockchain. This move is aimed at making the stablecoin faster and cheaper to use, providing users with more flexibility and control through multiple blockchain options.
Benefits of Solana for PYUSD
The Solana blockchain is renowned for its high transaction speeds and low costs, making it an ideal platform for stablecoin transfers. According to PayPal’s recent press release, Solana processes massive amounts of transactions efficiently, offering significant benefits for commerce use cases. Data from the blockchain analytics platform Artemis highlights Solana as the most used blockchain for stablecoin transfers, further solidifying its suitability for PYUSD in payments.
“PayPal USD was created with the intent to revolutionise commerce again by providing a fast, easy, and inexpensive payment method for the next evolution of the digital economy,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currency.
“Making PYUSD available on the Solana blockchain furthers our goal of enabling a digital currency with a stable value designed for commerce and payments.”
Expanding PYUSD’s Reach
PayPal introduced PYUSD last August and soon began offering it to users of its Venmo payments platform. Recently, PayPal partnered with cross-border money transfer service Xoom to allow international transactions using PYUSD.
Solana Foundation’s Push for Mainstream Crypto Payments
Sheraz Shere, head of payments at Solana Foundation, spoke about the effort to make crypto payments more mainstream. Shere emphasized that blockchains serve as alternative rails for payments and financial assets, not just as platforms for Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and NFTs. He noted that a significant obstacle to cryptocurrency adoption is a lack of awareness, particularly among the upper echelons of financial services.
“We are very early, even on the awareness side of things,” Shere said. Despite the enthusiasm among crypto advocates, more education is needed for executives to understand the practical applications and potential of cryptocurrency in payments.
PayPal’s integration of PYUSD with Solana marks a significant step in leveraging blockchain technology to enhance the efficiency and affordability of digital payments.
