The big news in crypto this week is that fintech giant PayPal is making good on its longtime plans to launch a stablecoin. After getting cold feet last year amid harsh market and regulatory conditions, PayPal chose Monday to announce PYUSD—a digital token on the Ethereum blockchain that U.S. customers can use for payments or transfers.
While the news spurred a modest jump in PayPal's share price, not everyone was thrilled. Some were quick to point out that the software supporting PYUSD was written in relatively old code, and that the project will be highly centralized (a big no-no among crypto purists)—even allowing PayPal to pause transfers and freeze addresses at will. As such, the crypto community will be reluctant to embrace it.
