PayPal announced on Sept. 20 that its PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin is now available through its subsidiary app, Venmo.
The company said that the stablecoin is now available to select Venmo users and that it will extend availability further in the coming weeks.
PayPal explained that users can transfer PYUSD between PayPal, Venmo, and external wallets. The company said that transfers between wallets on PayPal-owned apps are fast and free, noting that millions of users are eligible for these mutual transfers.
The company further emphasized compatibility between its two apps. In a separate statement to Fortune, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s head of crypto, said:
“This is a big deal because this is the first time that you’re going to have interoperability between the PayPal and Venmo wallets. It’s the first instance of wallet interoperability with no costs.”
Though external transfers are possible, PayPal suggested that transactions to third-party wallets and merchants will incur on-chain transaction fees.
PYUSD adoption is growing
PayPal first launched PYUSD on Aug. 7 and since then, several exchanges including Crypto.com, Bitstamp, Coinbase, and Kraken have added support for PYUSD.
The company acknowledged those additions. It added that other services including the software wallet MetaMask, the hardware wallet Ledger, the custodial service Fireblocks, and the payment service Bitpay, and numerous dApps have added support for the stablecoin. Paxos, a crypto custodian and broker that acts as PayPal’s crypto partner, also supports PYUSD. In all, PayPal listed 12 companies that support the asset.
Future adoption of the stablecoin could be streamlined through certain regulations. Paypal noted that the New York State Department of Financial Services has greenlisted PYUSD. This allows companies operating in the state to list PYUSD and certain other assets without creating a specific listing policy. However, regulators are revising this policy so that companies may be required to have a delisting policy regardless.
PayPal currently has a market cap of $44 million, making it hundreds of times smaller than other leading stablecoins. By contrast, Tether’s USDT stablecoin has $83 billion in circulation, while Circle’s USDC stablecoin has $26 billion in circulation.
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