PayPal Would Need These Two Things In Order to Issue a Stablecoin

November 16, 2021by Laura Shin

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

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Episode Links

Jose Fernandez da Ponte

PayPal Crypto Basics

• Homepage:
• FAQs: 
• Terms + Conditions: 
• Venmo Crypto: 

PayPal Crypto News

• CEO Dan Schulman on crypto
  • The first purchase
  • Time Magazine coverage
  • Financial Times coverage
• Contribution to the WEF Crypto Regulation paper
  • Paper: 
  • Comments: 
• Crypto withdrawals:
• Crypto services in the UK:
• Launching crypto services:
• Exploratory talks regarding a stablecoin:
• PayPal business unit:
• PayPal + Paxos:

Misc.

• PayPal Q3 earnings:
• Super-app:
• Unchained episode w/ Visa’s Cuy Sheffield: