Blockchain data showed stablecoin issuer Paxos both minted and burned about $300 trillion worth of the PayPal USD stablecoin within 30 minutes, leaving many crypto users scratching their heads.
In a Wednesday X post following the mint and burn, Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg said Aave would be temporarily freezing trades for PayPal USD (PYUSD) after an “unexpected high-magnitude transaction” of minting and burning the stablecoin. Ethereum blockchain data showed Paxos minting 300 trillion of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin at 7:12 pm UTC and then burning the entire amount 22 minutes later by sending it to an inaccessible wallet.
The 300 trillion PYUSD mint. Source: Etherscan
Reporting from The Defiant suggested that it had been an “accidental mint” given the timing. Others online have speculated that such a large mint and burn may have been some kind of test or simulation authorized by Paxos.
Cointelegraph reached out to the stablecoin issuer for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication, nor had Paxos or PayPal publicly commented on the move.
$300 trillion is more than twice the Gross Domestic Product for every country on earth, according to data from the International Monetary Fund.
This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.