Coinbase seeks ‘payments revolution’ via PayPal link-up
“It pushes the entire stablecoin ecosystem forward,” said a Coinbase representative
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Coinbase was pretty frank in its blog post earlier today.
“Our relationship with PayPal will take the payments revolution forward,” it stated.
You might recall that PayPal launched its PYUSD stablecoin in August 2023. This morning, Coinbase said it would waive fees on USD-PYUSD conversions and expand support for stablecoins to PayPal’s largest merchant partners.
It’s part of the crypto exchange’s wider goal of “promoting broader adoption of faster and more efficient financial services.”
This isn’t Coinbase’s first partnership with a stablecoin issuer. It acquired an equity stake in Circle in 2023, and earns interest income on its USDC reserves. Coinbase’s stablecoin revenue amounted to $910 million in 2024 — up 31% from the year prior.
Free global USDC transfers are available on Coinbase’s layer-2, Base. The company noted in its February shareholder letter: “Stablecoins have found market fit…reinforcing their role as a cornerstone of the onchain economy.”
A Coinbase spokesperson clarified to me this morning that this PayPal link-up does not change its existing relationship with Circle.
“Instead, it pushes the entire stablecoin ecosystem forward,” the rep said.
The big potential for stablecoins (currently sporting a ~$230 billion market cap) and the broader tokenization space are well documented. We’ve mentioned them in the last couple newsletters, in fact.
When I asked for more details on how Coinbase expects to collaborate with PayPal going forward (as mentioned in the blog), the spokesperson wasn’t super specific.
Essentially the exchange looks to allow stablecoins “to be integrated into a wide range of decentralized financial and payments applications directly on blockchain networks.”
More updates on those initiatives are set to come “if regulatory conditions permit,” the spokesperson added.
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