Paxos

Paxos is a federally chartered blockchain infrastructure company that issues regulated stablecoins and tokenized assets — including PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Pax Gold (PAXG) — and supplies the custody, settlement, and brokerage APIs that allow enterprises to build digital-asset services without managing their own compliance and licensing stack.

Founding and Regulatory Standing

Paxos was founded in 2012 by Charles Cascarilla and Rich Teo as itBit, one of the first licensed bitcoin exchanges in the United States. The company rebranded to Paxos Trust Company in 2015 after receiving a limited-purpose trust charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services — at the time, one of the earliest such approvals granted to a crypto company. That NYDFS charter required Paxos to hold customer assets fully segregated and 1:1 backed, establishing the reserve discipline that defines all its products today.

In December 2025, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency conditionally approved Paxos's conversion to a national trust bank charter, making Paxos Trust Company, N.A. one of the first federally chartered stablecoin issuers. The conversion replaced a patchwork of state-level permissions with a single federal supervisor and positions Paxos squarely inside the regulatory perimeter established by the GENIUS Act — US federal stablecoin legislation signed into law in July 2025 — which mandates full asset backing, enforceable redemption rights, and monthly reserve reporting. Paxos also holds licensing from Singapore's Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), enabling it to serve institutional clients across multiple jurisdictions.

Core Products

Stablecoin Issuance

Paxos issues three principal regulated digital assets:

• Pax Dollar (USDP) — a US dollar stablecoin launched in September 2018. Reserves are held 1:1 in cash and short-dated US Treasury instruments, independently attested monthly.
• PayPal USD (PYUSD) — a US dollar stablecoin Paxos issues on behalf of PayPal, launched in August 2023. Paxos manages reserve compliance and issuance/redemption mechanics while PayPal provides consumer distribution. PYUSD launched on Ethereum and expanded to Solana in May 2024, where it has grown to become one of the most widely circulated stablecoins on the network.
• Pax Gold (PAXG) — a gold-backed token where each unit represents one fine troy ounce of physical gold held in LBMA-accredited vaults in London. Reserve gold is subject to monthly attestations by KPMG and annual physical audits by Bureau Veritas. PAXG launched on Ethereum in 2019 and expanded to Solana in June 2026.

Paxos's international affiliate, Paxos International, previously issued Lift Dollar (USDL), a yield-bearing regulated stablecoin described as the first of its kind to distribute daily yield directly to holders' wallets under regulatory oversight; USDL was subsequently wound down. Paxos also issued Global Dollar (USDG) as an additional regulated dollar stablecoin.

Enterprise Crypto Brokerage

Paxos's brokerage infrastructure allows enterprise clients — banks, fintechs, and payment platforms — to offer their customers access to crypto markets without building their own licensed trading stack. Paxos handles regulatory licensing, custody, and order execution on the back end. Revolut became the first crypto brokerage client in July 2020; subsequent clients have included Interactive Brokers, OANDA, Mastercard, Mercado Libre, and Nubank.

Custody via Fordefi

In November 2025, Paxos acquired Fordefi, an institutional-grade multi-party computation (MPC) wallet and custody technology provider. The acquisition lets Paxos offer self-custody infrastructure alongside its existing custodial services, targeting institutional clients who need policy-based access controls and secure key management at scale.

Settlement Infrastructure

Paxos has operated blockchain-based settlement services for US equities. In 2019 the SEC issued a no-action letter permitting Paxos to process equity settlements on blockchain rails, an early proof-of-concept for tokenized traditional finance.

Solana Ecosystem Integration

Paxos's Solana presence has grown substantially since 2024 and now encompasses two of its flagship assets.

PYUSD launched on Solana in May 2024, taking advantage of the network's low transaction costs and high throughput. Growth has been swift: by mid-2025, PYUSD's Solana supply matched its Ethereum supply, and by April 2026, Solana held approximately 60 percent of total PYUSD supply across all chains. Total PYUSD supply exceeded $2.9 billion in March 2026 per Paxos's transparency reports, making it one of the largest stablecoins by circulation on Solana.

PAXG launched on Solana on June 25, 2026, in partnership with Sunrise DeFi, which integrated the token into Solana's DEX and DeFi liquidity layer. The expansion came as Solana's real-world asset sector crossed $2.5 billion in total value locked in May 2026, up from roughly $215 million a year earlier. PAXG is the only OCC-regulated gold token in circulation.

Paxos has also partnered with the Solana Developer Platform (SDP) as an infrastructure provider, making its stablecoin issuance, global payment orchestration, and Fordefi-powered custody available natively to enterprises building on SDP.

Transparency and Audits

All Paxos-issued fiat stablecoins are backed 1:1 by cash and short-dated US Treasury instruments, with monthly third-party reserve attestations published publicly. PAXG reserves are attested monthly by KPMG and subject to annual physical inspection by Bureau Veritas. The OCC national bank charter adds a layer of federal supervisory examination on top of those third-party reports, providing an unusually deep compliance stack relative to most stablecoin issuers.

Team and Background

Paxos was co-founded by Charles Cascarilla (CEO) and Rich Teo. The company is headquartered in New York City and had raised approximately $540 million in venture funding by April 2021. In June 2025, Paxos launched Paxos Labs, a unit focused on institutional DeFi integration. The company also developed Hoplites, an internal AI-driven development agent that handles approximately 15 percent of the company's software commits.