PayPal is going all in on PYUSD this year, expanding its stablecoin across multiple products to tighten its grip on crypto payments and business transactions. The company confirmed at its investor day on Tuesday that merchants, freelancers, and global sellers will soon be able to pay, get paid, and settle transactions with PYUSD in ways that weren’t possible before.
The plan is simple but aggressive—integrate PYUSD into bill payments, Hyperwallet’s mass payouts, and eventually, crypto settlements for all PayPal checkout transactions. The push isn’t just about giving users another payment option—it’s about turning PYUSD into a default digital cash system.
Merchants will use PYUSD for bill payments this year
PayPal is rolling out a PYUSD-powered bill-pay feature that will allow over 20 million small-to-medium-sized businesses to pay their vendors using the stablecoin. Michelle Gill, who leads PayPal’s small business and financial services unit, broke down the move at the company’s investor event in New York.
“A lot of the payments we’re expecting are going to be cross-border because merchants in the US are seeking to pay vendors and suppliers abroad,” Gill said. “The thesis was: Can we facilitate that on PYUSD rails so as not to have the currency conversion, the friction, as well as time?”
The idea is to eliminate unnecessary banking fees and delays by keeping all transactions inside PayPal’s ecosystem. Instead of wiring payments through traditional banking networks—which often come with currency conversion costs, long wait times, and extra fees—businesses will be able to send PYUSD instantly, with no middlemen involved.
PayPal already completed its first business transaction using PYUSD last year, proving that the rails are ready. Now, it’s about getting merchants to actually use it.
PYUSD is coming to Hyperwallet’s mass payout system
Beyond merchant payments, PayPal is bringing PYUSD to Hyperwallet, a mass payment service that helps businesses send money to contractors, freelancers, and sellers globally. PayPal bought Hyperwallet for $400 million in 2018, and now, it’s turning it into a crypto-powered payout engine.
PYUSD payouts will go live in the first half of this year, and the goal is clear—give businesses a faster, cheaper, and more efficient way to send large-scale global payments without needing to rely on banks.
That’s a big deal for freelancers, gig workers, and independent sellers who use Hyperwallet to get paid by companies worldwide. Instead of waiting days for bank transfers or dealing with high wire fees, they’ll be able to receive PYUSD instantly, straight into their PayPal accounts.
CEO Alex Chriss, who took over in September 2023, made it clear that crypto payments are no longer just an idea—they’re happening now. “We’ve been talking about blockchains for like a decade now,” Chriss said. “The concept of these things never becomes real until you actually can start to spend it. And I think that’s what we’re enabling.”
Venmo is becoming a serious business tool
At PayPal’s first investor day in four years, Chriss laid out his long-term vision for Venmo, shifting it from a peer-to-peer money app to a full-scale business payments platform.
The company now expects Venmo revenue to surpass $2 billion by 2027, a major jump from $900 million in 2021. It’s already making moves to turn Venmo into a go-to payment tool for businesses, with more merchants adding “Pay with Venmo” as an option.
To push Venmo beyond the consumer market and into the world of business transactions, PayPal has partnered with companies including DoorDash, Starbucks and Ticketmaster.In its fourth-quarter earnings report earlier this month, PayPal said the number of merchants using Pay with Venmo increased 50% from a year earlier.
The Venmo debit card is now a major focus, with total payment volume expected to grow at 20% annually, while “Pay With Venmo” is expanding at double that rate, according to a CNBC report.
PayPal’s stock has taken a massive hit in recent years, with its market cap dropping over 80% from mid-2021 to late 2023. Chriss is trying to reverse that by focusing on transaction margins and steady revenue growth. At investor day, he laid out a financial roadmap, projecting high single-digit transaction margin growth and low double-digit earnings per share growth by 2027.
The company is also bringing in new partners to expand Venmo’s reach. Instacart and MoonPay joined as partners last quarter, showing that Venmo is becoming a bigger player in crypto transactions and online commerce.
“While we are still early in monetizing Venmo, we have a proven playbook that is resonating with customers,” Chriss said on the earnings call. “This gives us confidence as we move to 2025 and beyond.”
