Compiled by: TechFlow

Money, Payments, and Freedom

Money isn't powerful when it accumulates; money is powerful when it flows.

Billions of transactions occur every day around the world, and payments are the most tangible, frequent use of money. Yet payments are more than just value exchange—they are a story about the freedom to progress.

Every transaction we make—from buying coffee to transferring funds overseas—is an expression of our financial autonomy. Conversely, being unable to pay as we wish limits our ability to create, share, and leverage value on our own terms.

PayPal emerged at a pivotal moment in payment history. From the early days of e-commerce, we established ourselves as a beacon of trust, giving users confidence to transact within a powerful but challenging new ecosystem. Now, over a decade after the emergence of blockchain technology, PayPal once again stands at a defining moment in payment history. Just as we brought payments online, today we are bringing payments on-chain.

Our commitment throughout our journey has remained unchanged: to advance payment innovation so everyone can pay however they want.

The Digital Payment Revolution

The latest structural shift in payments arrived with the internet.

As vast amounts of information moved online, the mechanisms for tracking and managing money followed—ranging from account balances and transaction histories to broader commercial activities. This thriving e-commerce ecosystem set new expectations for how transactions should work.

Demand evolved accordingly, with people seeking payments that match the immediacy and borderlessness of their everyday online interactions.

This digital transformation highlighted an emerging gap. While the internet provided infrastructure for global commerce, there was a clear lack of trusted and efficient online payment systems. People sought platforms that were not only secure but also fast and intuitive. Businesses needed reliable platforms that resonated with a growing online customer base.

PayPal bridged the gap between the new digital financial rails and consumers’ urgent need for trust and accessibility. We built an ecosystem that fulfills our mission: empowering people to pay as they wish through flexible and secure global payments.

Today, PayPal’s network of over 400 million active accounts is proof that its success goes beyond simply identifying market gaps.

It reflects our unwavering commitment to making payments easier. Over decades, as the internet evolved and other fintech tools emerged, our focus never wavered. From enabling eBay transactions in our early days to acquiring Venmo in 2013, our trajectory has always been defined by one question: How do people want to pay?

We’ve spent decades answering this question. At the highest level, the answer remains quite simple: People want fast, low-cost, global payments. Yet, over the past thirty years, solutions have consistently fallen short.

A New Gap: PayPal, Crypto, and New Financial Rails

While the digital payments industry has strived to deliver global, instant, and seamless transactions, reality often falls short.

To date, payment innovations have operated on the same foundational financial rails that existed before the internet. In practice, “instant” settlement and “24/7” services are often conveniences achieved by accepting (or shifting) risk.

Settlement times for online payments remain long (in the U.S., averaging 2–3 days). Markets, banks, and services operate on business hours, further delaying settlements. Employers struggle to pay an increasingly distributed workforce. A growing global population faces difficulties sending cross-border remittances affordably and quickly. Businesses feel these frictions most acutely, while consumers still face long settlement times in payment contexts where they expect speed.

In short, people today cannot necessarily pay the way they want.

So why did we turn to crypto? The answer is: It's practical.

Crypto brings us closer to what people desire: fast, low-cost, global payments. And as we've said before—we’re in the business of payments.

Blockchain is the new financial rail—the new payment rail. Blockchain technology transforms both the external and operational mechanics of payments. For customers and businesses alike, settlement becomes nearly instantaneous—anytime, anywhere.

This is significant. Blockchain is the only technology offering a fundamentally new way to pay. While it may appear trendy to some, to PayPal, blockchain makes sense.

If a payment tool can offer 24/7, near-instant, and cost-effective transactions, exploring that solution is a practical decision. This isn’t about chasing trends—it’s about whether we can identify and adopt an alternative, potentially better financial technology for payments.

Once again, PayPal finds itself uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between new payment rails and their broad adoption and trust. With 400 million accounts, we can better serve our users by adding blockchain-based payment options. Just as we did in the early days of e-commerce, PayPal is moving forward with a single goal: enabling you to pay however you want.

PayPal, Payments, and PYUSD

In 2020, we enabled PayPal and Venmo users to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies in their accounts. Last year, users began transferring their purchased crypto assets to external wallets, including decentralized wallets.

We envision PayPal and Venmo continuing as key hubs for commerce—the primary channels through which individuals and businesses exchange goods and services. By enabling crypto asset transfers between PayPal and Venmo accounts, we better connect the DeFi and CeFi worlds through a platform skilled in facilitating payments.

Our broader view of blockchain and cryptocurrency is neutral—that is, we have no ideological preference in this race.

We know customers still want easier, faster, and cheaper payments; we know blockchain enables these types of payments in ways today’s internet-era financial rails cannot; we believe customers should be free to choose new solutions that meet their underlying needs.

However, we do have a distinct stance on stablecoins. We believe they are essential to fully realizing cryptocurrency’s potential as an accessible and flexible payment tool. PYUSD, issued by Paxos, represents our position in the stablecoin space. It is our promise to customers. We are doing what we’ve done since 1998: delivering what our customers want.

What our customers want is easier payments. Businesses want to pay suppliers without worrying about settlement delays. Individuals want to send money to family without paying high fees or waiting days. Today’s financial infrastructure fails to meet the demand for fast transactions, and we don’t want our customers to lose value while waiting.

Today, blockchain technology is the only innovation offering a completely new payment rail capable of meeting customer needs. We remain committed to pioneering one thing above all: consistently providing our customers with what they want and deserve—trust, confidence, and ease. PYUSD is simply the next evolution toward that goal.

Pay How You Want

At PayPal, we’ve always believed that the essence of money lies in its movement, and fast, low-cost, global movement is exactly what our customers seek. PayPal’s history is the story of this steadfast commitment: empowering individuals and businesses to transact on their own terms. We believe cryptocurrency creates a new paradigm that advances the goal of global payments.

In other words, our belief is simple: Paying with crypto means paying however you want.