Coinbase joins crypto exchanges in listing PayPal’s stablecoin

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase is all set to welcome PayPal’s stablecoin – PayPal USD ($PYUSD). The platform will begin its trading on 31 August after ensuring that its liquidity conditions are met.

The intention to list PayPal’s stablecoin was first revealed in an X (formerly Twitter) post, where it announced the addition of the new asset in Coinbase’s roadmap. The post was linked to Coinbase’s blog where it detailed new asset listings in an attempt to increase transparency.

The blog stated that trading on the PYUSD-USD trading pairs will be launched in phases once sufficient supply of this asset is established. It also noted that support for $PYUSD may be restricted in some supported jurisdictions.

The PYUSD-USD trades on Coinbase Exchange and Advanced Trade will receive the stable pair pricing of 0 bps maker / 0.1 bps taker. Coinbase has also decided to add support for $PYUSD with the Experimental label.

The exchange had introduced its Experimental asset label feature to confirm the validity of tradable assets in an attempt to help customers make informed decisions. These are for the assets that are either new to the platform or have relatively low trading volume compared to the broader crypto marketplace.

The platform constantly monitors these assets on its platform and may remove the label when an asset no longer meets the criteria.

Paypal had rolled out its U.S. dollar stablecoin at the start of this month. Launched in conjunction with Paxos, $PYUSD is assured by the company to be “fully backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term Treasuries and similar cash equivalents”.

The stablecoin enjoys listings on multiple exchanges including Huobi, Kraken and Crypto.com. As of writing, the current total supply of $PYUSD stands at around 43 million tokens.

However, $PYUSD has been facing slow adoption levels and sluggish demands from crypto users since its launch. In a report published last week, Nansen suggested that a reason behind this could be the different demographic that the payments giant is focused on currently. “On the surface there’s a lack of demand from crypto users for $PYUSD when other alternatives exist”, said the blockchain analytics platform.

According to Nansen, “smart money” holders seem to be avoiding the stablecoin too as Paxos is still custodying more than 90% of $PYUSD supply. Other exchanges like Kraken, Gate.io and Crypto.com hold a meagre part of the supply, which is jusr over 7%.

Another concern for people has been the fact that the stablecoin is issued on the Ethereum blockchain, which is notoriously known for high transaction fees associated with using the protocol.

However, back when $PYUSD was launched, the president and CEO of PayPal, Dan Schulman heralded the stablecoin as central in the shift towards digital currencies, which requires-

“….a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.”