PayPal CEO: Optimistic about the potential of stablecoin PYUSD in cross-border payments

PayPal CEO Alex Chriss said in a conference call with analysts that using the company's own stablecoin PYUSD for cross-border payments is one of the areas where "we see attractive economic benefits and market upside." Earlier this month, PayPal announced that its cross-border remittance service Xoom will allow customers to send PYUSD with zero fees. Despite becoming the first major financial services company to launch its own stablecoin in August last year, PayPal did not list cryptocurrency-related earnings in its Q1 financial report. According to CoinGecko data, PYUSD currently has a market value of more than $327 million, making it the 11th largest stablecoin by market value. Since the announcement of Xoom's fee exemption, PYUSD's market value has increased by more than 70%, far exceeding the growth rate of similar stablecoins. Analysts say that one of the reasons why PYUSD is rarely mentioned in the financial report may be the uncertainty of the US regulatory environment. "Regulators want to make an example of market participants," said Boaz Sobrado, a fintech analyst at Capital.com. "They don't want to draw attention to themselves." Despite the growth in PYUSD's market value, the lack of support for low-fee blockchains means that large-scale organic adoption has not yet occurred in the remittance space. Chriss, who took over as CEO last September, has not spoken publicly about cryptocurrencies before, but has been quite optimistic. PayPal also announced in January that it had invested $5 million in crypto startup Mesh. The company expects diluted earnings per share of about $3.65 for the rest of 2024, down from $3.84 last year. PayPal shares were essentially flat on Tuesday, but have risen more than 10% so far this year. Chriss said in a statement accompanying the earnings report: "2024 is still a transition year, and we will focus on execution - driving our key strategic plans, achieving cost savings, and making appropriate reinvestments to enable the company to achieve sustained, high-quality profitable growth." (Fortune) Yesterday's news, according to PayPal's first quarter results for fiscal 2024, its net income in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 reached US$7.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9%. In addition, GAAP earnings per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 increased by 18% to US$0.831; non-GAAP earnings per share increased by 27% to US$1.08 (based on the new non-GAAP method, it was US$0.85 in the first quarter of fiscal 2023). Total payments in the first quarter increased by 14% to US$403.9 billion. Payment transaction volume increased by 11% to 6.5 billion. As of March 31, 2024, the company had total cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $17.7 billion and total debt of $11.0 billion.