Paxos, the issuer of PayPal's PYUSD <button class="define-target" id="stablecoin">stablecoin</button>, accidentally <button class="define-target" id="mint">minted</button> 300&nbsp;trillion of the supposedly dollar-<button class="define-target" id="peg">pegged</button> token. For context, this is approximately 2.5x the global GDP, and around 125x the total number of US&nbsp;dollars actually in circulation.<p>Paxos later announced that the mint was an "internal technical error", and that they had <button class="define-target" id="burn">burned</button> the excess tokens.</p><p>While PayPal promises its customers that "Reserves are held 100% in US dollar deposits, US treasuries and cash equivalents – meaning that customer funds are available for 1:1 redemption with Paxos," there clearly isn't much in the way of safeguards to ensure that is always the case. As with most stablecoin issuers, Paxos merely issues self-reported and unreviewed portfolio reports, and monthly third-party attestations (not audits) of reserves.</p>

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