PayPal, one of the world’s largest financial platforms, continues its mission to deliver blockchain-based services to users and businesses alike.

On September 25, 2024, PayPal announced it would be enabling U.S. merchants to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency assets within their business accounts. The move is the latest in a slew of updates made by PayPal as the TradFi giant continues to embrace the cryptocurrency industry.

U.S. Businesses Can Now Store Funds Onchain
Following the successful launch of crypto services for individual users, PayPal remarked that businesses were eager to meet user’s growing demand for more comprehensive crypto services.

"Since we launched the ability for PayPal and Venmo consumers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency in their wallets, we have learned a lot about how they want to use their cryptocurrency… Business owners have increasingly expressed a desire for the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers. We're excited to meet that demand by delivering this new offering, empowering them to engage with digital currencies effortlessly." - Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies, PayPal.

PayPal’s commitment to providing merchants with expanded crypto services and flexibility goes beyond buying and selling digital assets. Merchants can now withdraw cryptocurrencies to external onchain wallets.

While PayPal has stipulated that this feature will be limited to “eligible” wallets, the move also opens the door to more businesses becoming involved in DeFi. For example, businesses holding capital might be able to lend out assets in various onchain lending protocols, earning additional yield on a merchant’s treasury.

$PYUSD Solana Supply Down 40% Since ATH
Since launching on Solana on May 29, 2024, $PYUSD enjoyed meteoric growth. Spurred on by generous liquidity provision incentives, $PYUSD’s Solana-based supply surged to over 663.4M tokens based on Step Finance data. This eclipsed Ethereum’s $PYUSD supply, making Solana the unofficial home of PayPal’s crypto services.

However, as $PYUSD reward campaigns have slowed and market conditions improved, the supply of PayPal USD on Solana has declined. At its highest point on August 28, 2024, Solana hosted $PYUSD 65.79% supply dominance.

Based on DeFiLlama data, that figure has since fallen to just 50.4%, with PayPal USD’s Solana-based supply currently sitting at 354M.

It's unlikely that PayPal merchants based in the U.S. will rush to bring their stablecoin holdings onchain and deploy them in Solana DeFi protocols. However, the move highlights PayPal’s willingness to respond positively to customer feedback and integrate blockchain technology into its expansive product suite.