Paxos Accidentally Mints 300 Trillion PYUSD — Says It Burned the Excess

Today Paxos, the blockchain partner behind PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin, accidentally minted 300 trillion PYUSD — an amount that exceeds global GDP by more than double. PYUSD is intended to be redeemable 1:1 for US dollars, so an unintended minting on this scale is alarming for stablecoin integrity.

Paxos acknowledged the mistake on X, calling it an “internal technical error,” and said it burned the excess reserves of the stablecoin. The company also reassured clients that customer funds remain secure. Independent reports picked up the story quickly, highlighting how fast such errors can spread in crypto systems.

• What happened: A massive accidental mint of ~300,000,000,000,000 PYUSD.
• Immediate response: Paxos said it burned the extra supply and labeled the incident an internal technical error.
• Impact: The amount minted dwarfs global financial measures (the piece cites global GDP at roughly $117 trillion), raising questions about operational controls and oversight.

Although Paxos says clients’ funds are safe, this incident raises several concerns: how did the minting process fail at scale, what safeguards are in place to prevent similar events, and how will regulators respond? Stablecoins depend on trust and clear redeemability rules—events like this can quickly erode confidence.

For more background, see the original coverage on Engadget: Engadget: PayPal’s blockchain partner accidentally minted 300 trillion in stablecoins and Paxos’ updates on X: Paxos on X.

What happens next will be important: expect scrutiny from regulators, questions from users and partners, and a closer look at minting controls across custodial stablecoin issuers.

Discussion: How concerned are you about operational controls at stablecoin issuers — and what safeguards would make you feel safer?