PayPal has begun issuing its dollar-pegged stablecoin PYUSD natively on the Polygon network, the company said Thursday. The move adds a second blockchain for PYUSD, which until now was minted primarily on Ethereum.
The stablecoin will also be available through Polygon's Open Money Stack, a set of developer tools aimed at enabling real-time payments and programmable money flows. That stack already supports stablecoins like USDC, and PYUSD's inclusion opens another corridor for PayPal to push its own token into payment and DeFi use cases.
For Polygon, the addition of a major payment company's stablecoin as a native asset is a vote of confidence. Layer-2 networks have been competing to attract stablecoin liquidity, and native issuance – rather than bridged tokens – eliminates the bridge risk that has plagued cross-chain transfers. PYUSD holders can now transact directly on Polygon without moving tokens through a third-party bridge.
The timing aligns with a broader push by PayPal to deepen its stablecoin strategy. PYUSD, launched in August 2023, has steadily grown in circulation, though it remains a fraction of the size of market leaders USDT and USDC. By expanding to Polygon, PayPal taps a network that processes millions of daily transactions, many of them small-value payments and DeFi interactions.
Polygon's Open Money Stack adds another distribution channel. Developers building on the stack can integrate PYUSD for instant settlement, potentially reducing reliance on traditional payment rails. For PayPal, the goal appears to be embedding PYUSD into everyday commerce – not just speculative trading.
What to watch: how quickly PYUSD supply on Polygon ramps up, and whether PayPal extends native issuance to other chains such as Solana or Arbitrum. The company has not announced further expansions, but the infrastructure is now in place for broader distribution.
PayPal expands PYUSD stablecoin to Polygon network for faster, safer payments
PayPal has started issuing its dollar-pegged PYUSD stablecoin on the Polygon blockchain, allowing users to make transactions directly on Polygon without relying on risky token transfers between networks. This benefits PayPal customers and developers by enabling quicker and more secure payments through a widely used, low-cost network.