Inside PayPal's Blockchain Strategy: Insights from the Head of Crypto
Jose Fernandez da Ponte is the Head of Crypto at PayPal. PayPal's entry into the crypto market dates back to 2020 when they announced the integration of various crypto assets, enabling users to buy, sell, and hold digital currencies. Since then, they have progressively expanded their crypto offerings and adopted more ambitious strategies to incorporate blockchain technology. In this podcast, we'll explore PayPal's motivation for entering the crypto space, the current crypto applications available on their platform, the creation and purpose of their stablecoin, PYUSD, and their approach to facilitating mass adoption of blockchain technology.
0:00 Intro
0:58 PayPal Enters Crypto
6:27 PayPal Crypto Payments
16:58 Fees
20:16 PayPal Wallet
22:28 PYUSD
36:43 PayPal Yield
40:23 Stablecoin Competition
48:57 Multichain
53:25 Adoption
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Will PayPal's PYUSD Steal Market Share From Tether and Circle? - Ep. 530
A major player has entered the stablecoin wars. PayPal went deeper down the crypto rabbithole this week with the launch of its Ethereum-based PYUSD. The dollar-backed stablecoin now puts PayPal in competition with the likes of Tether and Circle for quickly sending value around the world on-chain. José Fernández da Ponte, PayPal’s crypto SVP, joins the show to unpack how the fintech giant is building a long-term strategy around blockchain-based payments.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show highlights:
why PayPal decided to launch a stablecoin
how long it will take for stablecoins to reach mainstream adoption and what the advantages of stablecoins are
how PYUSD will differentiate from other giants in the stablecoin space such as USDT and USDC
whether the U.S. stablecoin bill influenced the launch of PYUSD
why stablecoins should be regulated at the state level
whether PayPal plans to launch stablecoins pegged to other fiat currencies
how Paxos will provide attestation reports for PYUSD
why Jose thinks gaming is a huge opportunity for stablecoin payments
what the rationale was for launching an ERC-20 on Ethereum
how PayPal plans to monetize the stablecoin
why PayPal’s expectations for PYUSD in the short-term are “moderate”
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Arbitrum Foundation
Thales DAO
Guest
José Fernández da Ponte, SVP of Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal
Links
Unchained: PayPal Launches PYUSD Stablecoin Built on Ethereum
CoinDesk:
PayPal’s Real Stablecoin Strategy: It Wants to Earn Interest on Your Deposits
Congresswoman Maxine Waters Says She’s ‘Deeply Concerned’ About PayPal’s New Stablecoin
U.S. Stablecoin Bill Takes Big Step Despite Fight From Democrats, White House
Paxos Has Other 'White Label' Stablecoin Opportunities in the Works in Addition to PayPal USD
Blockworks: PayPal’s new stablecoin stirs centralization criticism
CNBC: PayPal is trying to drag its 435 million users into the $120 billion stablecoin market — here's why
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175 - 400M PayPal Users to Crypto with Jose Fernandez da Ponte
Can we go Bankless using PayPal? We brought on Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies at PayPal and Venmo to help us answer that question. Jose is responsible for driving PayPal’s efforts to bring the utility of crypto-assets and crypto-networks to their hundreds of millions of global consumers.
He also knows a thing or two about how the banking system works and how to fix it. And we also got the SVP of PayPal to say, “DeFi Mullet,” not once, but three times.
*PayPal currently offers crypto services only in the U.S., U.K., and Luxembourg. Venmo is available in the US only.
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------ In today’s episode, we cover:
1) What PayPal sees in crypto 2) What PayPal’s 400M accounts can do with crypto today 3) How we get to $1T in stablecoins 4) What’s the role of CDBCs in a world of highly successful stablecoins? Can CDBCs and crypto co-exist? 5) Jose’s contrarian view on crypto regulatory environment in the U.S. and why he sees it as a “glass half full”
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------ TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro 7:55 What a PayPal Dollar Is 11:21 PayPal & Venmo Crypto 16:29 The Crypto Strategy 22:59 DeFi Mullet 27:33 Service Providers 31:24 Is Crypto Useless? 32:30 PayPal’s Crypto Back-End 34:40 How Hard Was PayPal’s Crypto Integration? 36:35 Path to $1T In Stablecoins 40:31 Payments 44:36 Gaming 46:46 Network Integration 49:47 DeFi on PayPal’s Radar? 56:38 What’s Broken About U.S. Banking? 1:01:51 Settlement in the U.S. 1:06:32 Best Digital Cash Society 1:13:10 Stablecoins in the U.S. 1:16:25 Crypto Regulation 1:20:44 Making Crypto More Useable 1:23:30 Closing & Disclaimers
------ RESOURCES:
Jose Fernandez da Ponte https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-fernandez-da-ponte-a46ba81/
Payments and Evolution of Stablecoins Paper https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4425922
------ Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
PayPal Would Need These Two Things In Order to Issue a Stablecoin - Ep.290
Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s senior vice president and general manager of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies, discusses PayPal’s crypto game plan, how CBDCs might be implemented, crypto regulations, and more. Show highlights:
Jose’s path to becoming the GM of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies at PayPal
what factors led to PayPal’s decision to launch its crypto offering
what sort of customer makes up PayPal’s crypto demographic
how users are engaging with the various PayPal crypto services, like crypto-rewards cards
whether the introduction of crypto had anything to do with Venmo’s 36% jump in volume during Q3 2021
how PayPal interacts with Paxos on the backend to settle crypto transactions
why Jose thinks PayPal has decided to not add cryptocurrency to its balance sheet
how crypto transactions work within PayPal’s internal ledger and how that might change once PayPal launches support for withdrawals off-platform
the three types of directions that Jose believes stablecoins and CBDCs could be built
what solutions would need to be built before PayPal would consider issuing its own stablecoin
what scaling technologies, be it L1 or L2, PayPal is interested in
whether stablecoins and CBDCs can/will co-exist
Jose’s thoughts on how long it will be before CBDCs are being issued
why Jose thinks that new regulation might be necessary for cryptocurrencies
whether PayPal will be participating in decentralized activities, such as on-chain governance
why Jose thinks that PayPal’s crypto offering could help improve financial inclusion -- especially for smaller companies
why Jose and PayPal are excited about NFTs
how PayPal will decide to support new cryptocurrencies on its platform
what Jose thinks PayPal’s crypto offering could look like in the future
Thank you to our sponsors!
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Episode Links
Jose Fernandez da Ponte
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-fernandez-da-ponte-a46ba81/
PayPal Crypto Basics
Homepage:
https://www.paypal.com/us/digital-wallet/manage-money/crypto
FAQs:
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/cryptocurrency-on-paypal-faq-faq4398
https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/topic/MY_WALLET_PER
Terms + Conditions:
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/cryptocurrencies-tnc
Venmo Crypto:
https://venmo.com/about/crypto/
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