PayPal is Taking PYUSD Stablecoin & Crypto Global! with May Zabaneh
May Zabaneh, SVP and General Manager of Crypto at PayPal, joined me to discuss how the company is taking its PYUSD stablecoin global. With a massive launch across 70 new markets. Topics:
- PayPal’s crypto products
- PYUSD available in 70 markets worldwide in the PayPal account
- Future of Stablecoins and Payments
- Stablecoin regulation - GENIUS Act implementation
- YouTube PYUSD Integration
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⏰ Time Stamps ⏰
00:00 Intro
03:05 May's background
05:44 PayPal's Crypto Strategy
08:26 PYUSD expansion
14:27 Evolution of Payments
19:20 TCS Blockchain Trucker Invoices
21:09 YouTube PYUSD
23:30 Moonpay M0 PYUSDx
27:53 Genius Act
32:15 Stablecoin market
34:57 PayPal Crypto trends
39:40 Roadmap
43:26 Wrap up questions
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#PayPal #PYUSD #Stablecoin #Crypto #CryptoNews #Cryptocurrency #Bitcoin #BTC #BitcoinNews #ETF #News #Ripple #XRP #XRPNews #RippleXRP #Ethereum #EthereumNews #ETH #Solana #money #investing #trading #Altcoin #Altcoins #NFTs #Metaverse #Podcast #ThinkingCrypto
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The Thinking Crypto Podcast is your home for the best Crypto News and Interviews - crypto, cryptocurrency, crypto news, bitcoin, bitcoin news, xrp, xrp news, ripple, ripple news, ripple xrp, ethereum, ethereum news, cardano, ada, solana, altcoins, defi, news, interviews, podcast, metaverse, nft, altcoin daily, cryptosrus, coin bureau, altcoin news, bitcoin today, markets, investing =================================================
Disclaimer - The Thinking Crypto podcast and Tony Edward are not financial or investment experts. You should do your own research on each cryptocurrency and make your own conclusions and decisions for investment. Invest at your own risk, only invest what you are willing to lose. This channel and its videos are just for educational purposes and NOT investment or financial advice. Note that links included in this descrip
Speaker 1: The important thing here is like as we think of
stable coins and we think of crypto, it's just now
us as PayPal taking that and enhancing their experience even further.
I think that's the most important thing. What value do
I get out of it as a customer?
Speaker 2: Stable points and blockchain technology? What does that mean to PayPal?
Is it the fabric of how payments are going to
move forward? Or is this a proof of concept you're testing.
Speaker 1: When you think about it from a consumer's perspective, they
don't really need to understand the plumbing behind it. They
just need to understand the value.
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a description. Check it out. Hey everyone, welcome into the
Thinking Crypto podcast. I'm your host, Tony Edward and joining
me today is May Zabane, who is the SVP and
General Manager of Crypto at PayPal. May has been at
PayPal for over eighteen years and PayPal most recently is
announced it's taking its pyus the stable coin global with
a massive launch across seventy new markets. May, great to
have you, Great to be here, Yeah, May, I am
so excited for this conversation to dive into the latest
news of PayPal's expansion of p y usd as well
as your other crypto initiatives. But I would love to
kick it off with your background. Tell us about where
you're from and your professional background. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I'm actually originally from Jordan in the Middle East.
I grew up and was raised there and then came
to the States for I know you said background, and
I'm going way back, so sorry, don't worry, I'll make
this short. And then came to the States for college
and continued and landed in the rabbit hole of tech.
And loved it from there. So I have like hardware
experience that have done and then into the payments side
of the house and been in payments for quite a while,
and then that brought me into crypto because the fascinating
part of like how can you continue to innovate in
payments and how do you really drive and add value
back to consumers and merchants and utilizing a new technology
such as watchain technology and being able to do that
was like super exciting and a passion of mine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and this is one of the reasons I'm so
excited to speak with you because you have a plethor
of experience in payments. You've been a PayPal for a
very long time to so I want to like dive into,
you know, your pov of seeing the evolution of payments
and what that looks like in the future. You know,
where along the lines did you come across blockchain and crypto?
What was the aha moment for you? Yeah?
Speaker 1: A lot of it kind of stems also from like
just my background, Like when you when you are somebody
that's you know, raised in an international perspective, and especially
like when you think of the different countries that you're
surrounded by So if you think about we grew up
actually knowing that a lot of people would use dollar
access to to hedge from inflation. We knew that like
cross border fees were expensive, like wires and time and settlement,
and so I grew up in that environment with that
pretty much being embedded is kind of the core of
justt of everyday life. And so when you take those
those were foundational, like rooted kind of problems that we
always knew about just money and it's connectivity and access
around the world and from a global perspective. And so
when obviously the white paper came out and then there
was like the bitcoin emergence and then the continuous around
while there could be a stable cryptocurrency, right, that then
ties and it still takes all these benefits like it's
incident transfers, it's reduced costs, it's sent to anyone anywhere
in the world, like it really then starts to become
that aha moment of Wow, these are pain points that
I've seen for most of my life, and now there's
a technology that's really starting to bridge us further and
closer into this global connectivity in such a meaningful way.
Speaker 2: So me I want to make sure I asked this
question because it's not so much for me, but I
think more the crypto curious and that people who are
still learning about stable coins and all these things are
stable coins and blockchain technology. What does that mean to Paypalt?
Is it, let's say, the fabric of how payments are
going to move forward? Or is this a proof of
concept you're testing and you're doing certain things. I want
you to answer that question. I know the answer, but
I want you to give that perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's really important when you think about
it today, Like from a consumer's perspective, today, money moves
for them in some cases, like within the PayPal wallet,
it is and sent in some cases they have financial
service as the cards, et cetera. They don't really need
to understand the plumbing behind it. They just need to
understand the value. Hey I need to send my friend money.
I would like it at the cheapest costs I can,
in the fastest way possible, and in something that they're
familiar with. Right, And so when you think about just that,
that's who we started as a company. We started connecting people,
We started connecting consumers and merchants. We started connecting consumers
and consumers to be able to move their money and
value and in a way that is simple and easy
and relatable to them.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: I think the important thing here is like, as we
think of stable coins and we think of crypto, it's
just now us as PayPal taking that and enhancing their
experience even further. It's saying, hey, if you want to
now send cross border to a friend around the world
and in a stable currency, because that's what your friend
wants to receive. And by the way, you can do
that today through PayPal, a platform that you're familiar with,
and you can send it will there's no cross border fee,
there's no time to settle, it can arrive instantly and
for them. And so I think that's the most important
thing that any mainstream user needs to understand, not the
complexity or the back end or the plumbing of how
things work, but actually, like what value do I get
out of it as a customer? What are you tangibly
giving me, Which is something that has faster speed, something
that has a lower cost, something that then you're putting
in a platform that can be accessible to me in
the place that I'm used to engaging with and trust.
Speaker 2: Pardon the interruption. Hi, I'm Tony. I'm the host of
the Thinking Crypto podcast. I wanted to ask you if
you can please support the podcast by hitting the like
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get your podcasts, please be sure to follow and hit
the five star rating. I'll let you get back to
the content. Thank you so much. Absolutely, And then just recently,
PayPal announced the expansion of its stable coin pyu is
the to seventy markets worldwide. So talk to us a
bit about that and how that's going to improve crossborder payments.
You know, you highlighted some of the benefits there and
the strategy behind the expansion.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so fundamentally, because as you said, well, like a
payments company with our stable point and have a distribution
network of consumers and merchants of like hundreds of millions
right around the world, and so when you think of
that now, it's like, Okay, how do we utilize it
and actually put it in people's hands so that they
can access it and they can find utility around it
and so this was a big portion of our of
our access strategy, a part of that which is, okay,
how do we now enable our PayPal wallets around the
world into these seventy markets to be able to hold, send, spend,
and earn rewards on our stable point. And by the way,
now if that if that consumer and that's in a
specific country Columbia, Peru, et cetera, now wants to send
it to somebody else. Now they can again, they send it,
they receive it in a stable value as US sollers
backed stable coin. They can now send it to another person.
And now a flywheel really starts to emerge, and there's
there's no costs. There's really like bare minimum costs in that.
So the transfer feed part of it is minimal of costs,
the stability of it being there's no conversion into local
guardsy they can when they want to, and that gives
them more control because now if I received it, and
I'm in one of those kinds trees as p y U,
s C, I can whenever I want to, whenever the
FX you know, rates are best suited for me to
be able to convert it. And so it really gives
and empowers people around the world to have more like
economic control. And I think that's what really like excites
us the most and like makes this really purposeful because
now you really are able to give that stability to
people and especially where they need it most.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is really great, and the benefits to folks
in many countries and developing countries and so forth. You know,
I think here in the United States we take for
granted the ability to move moneyly and we have all
the infrastructure, but that's not the case across the globe.
And I love the fact that people can earn rewards.
So to your point, if they're just holding on to
that py USD stable corn, they can actually put it
to work. Tell us a bit about the rewards and
how that functions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So we love to say this is a PayPal's
valueball up. We help you earn, send, spend, and we
want to get view that flexibility. So on the URN perspective,
if you hold so the amount that you hold, you
essentially earn annual four percent annual rewards on bo I
C by having that in your wallet, and you obviously
can then still send and spend it as you want.
But it really give gives at least puts your money
to your you know, your money value, monetary value to
work when you're not sending or spending it.
Speaker 2: Now PayPal, of course within its network has Venmo and
I know you offer crypto the ability to buy sell crypto.
There is p yus you also available via Venmo.
Speaker 1: It is actually yeah, I think we launched in twenty
twenty one or sorry, twenty one, crypto trading was launched
in Venmo and then in twenty three once we launched
our stable point, it was actually available in both PayPal
and Venmo.
Speaker 2: Interesting, so does it offer the same type of capabilities or.
Speaker 1: Okay, pretty much the same. Yeah. So you can buy
and sell different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum and Solana.
You can also hold p y u s C, you
can earn on p y u s C, you can
you can transfer, so it it's it's definitely a great
capability and especially for that demographic and for Venmo users,
it really provides an easy way. It's a platform they
eleven and engage with and now it's just an extra,
an extra way for them to engage.
Speaker 2: Kind of a customer perspective question with the rollout, are
the users notified that hey, the p y u s
these stable coin is now powering our rails. And here
are the benefits, like lower fees, you can earn rewards
or is it kind of just running behind the scenes.
The customer seeds is the benefits. But I think you
alluded to earlier. They don't necessarily need to know the piping.
Speaker 1: Yeah, on this one in particular, this launch, it is
more customer facing, means that they would hold a p
y a stable point itself. It's not the back end
like piping of the like payments infrastructure. I do think
we you know, the world will go there on both sides,
being you know, stable coins being part of the back
end architecture as well as being a front and kind
of asset that people use and materialize. But in this case,
in particular, it is p y us. See this set.
The great news is that most people in these emergent
countries and different places already actually understand what stable coins
are have adopted it half familiarity again because people are
trying to find ways to provide stability for themselves. And
you know, US dollar accessed just as a as a
currency is not always accessible in certain countries for many
different reasons and relationships or infrastructure that's available, and so
I think that's where crypto it provides a little bit
more accessibility and access. So it's still the stability of
US dollar, but it's it is a cryptocurrency that is
open and accessible.
Speaker 2: That's incredible, and it's awesome to hear that consumers in
other countries, they are starting to get educated and they
understan they're starting to understand what's happening here and how
stable coins and these things can change the way they
can get access to the US dollar and much more.
And you know, I just as you were saying that,
I thought back to two thousand and nineteen ninety nine
and using PayPal back then in the early days of
the Internet, and it's amazing how things have evolved since then.
It's just fascinating. It's incredible.
Speaker 1: Right, There's a point in technology was like, oh, moving
money digitally was like a big thing, and then it
was oh my gosh, there's mobile payments and what does
that do? Right? And then there's like instore payments. You mean,
I can take my digital and start paying in store,
you know, outside of the traditional you know, became a
lot more of the tap and base and O Okay,
you know, let a lot of that. And so when
you think about just the evolution of just your money
or your value, and I think this is a bit
of the next frontier, which is like, how do you
now take we've made some of these pieces. Now it's
a bit of that on chain, you know version we've
done off liin mobile online, and now it's like, okay,
what does the chain application into payments look like? And
how do you take and freak those benefits and then
provide that back to customers. So I think it's actually
super exciting because I think when you think about the
world and where we are, global connectivity matters a lot instancy,
and you know, things are becoming more rapid and instant,
and that's everything of our expectations, from social to payments
to every aspect. And then if you even predict further
out like into an AI you know world, if you
think agent to agent and you think about some of
these things, it needs programmable money and a different type
of currency than fiat, especially if you think of micro
transactions and you think about things that if we believe
that is where the world is going, then it will
also need a digitally native for grammable currency, where stable
coins would have also a perfect fit to play in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well said, you know, there's a lot of talk
of AI agents and I've even interviewed some folks who
are building humanoid robots and software, and guess what, They're
going to have a built in crypto wallet. And I
can't imagine those those things AI agents and humanoid robots
are going to be using cash and stable coins are
you know, the best fit with the instant settlement twenty
four to seven, you know, everything's running three sixty five,
it seems those digital we want to call it, non
human interactions are going to be powered by stable coins.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's fascinating, like it's and I you know,
it's you know, no one knows, but obviously there's a
tons of like high anticipation or prediction of that, and
it doesn't feel considering how things have moved so fast,
it almost feels like it may come sooner than we think.
And it's just fascinating you to see how it helps
us evolve.
Speaker 2: So do you see that maybe in ten years time,
stable coins are running through the rails, Consumers are educated
about it. If they choose to, they can leverage the
stable coins in different ways, but pretty much PayPal it's competitors,
and all the payments domestic or cross boarder are powered
by stable coins.
Speaker 1: I think there's a world for both to interact. So
I don't know that stable coins solve everything. And that's
where I think we need to be honest and careful,
as you know, as we were deliberate and intentional, as
we you know, as builders and technologists kind of build
into the future, Like we shouldn't be seeking you know,
it's not the solution to problem that like which ones
is it? And then that's why cross border payments, it's
it's a pretty it's a pretty compelling solution when you
look at the costs and the settlement and the times
and so there definitely I think will be a world,
or continue to be a world where both will continue
to exist. And I think it's just the sharpened focus
of like true maximized value, because there's no point in
moving some things that work very efficiently onto stable cointments.
Like what's the point of that If it's not adding value,
it's not reducing costs, and it's not helping customers at
the end of the day. But maybe it's helping a
business in the back end being more efficient in their
treasury movement, maybe cross countries and borders, and then a
customer probably never needs to know, but the company itself
is maximizing its efficiency or saving costs, and that that's
super relevant. And so I think it's the application as
we think about it, what is the product market fit?
What true value do you drive in the equation? And
then being able to provide that out is the world
that we will see more of. So I think it's
a little bit of that pushing payments further into spaces
that drive that really need faster speed, need lower costs,
and then you'll see that emerge a lot.
Speaker 2: So on that note, that's that's a great point and
a great segue into something I wanted to ask you about,
and that is TCS Blockchain and Paypals partnership where the
collaboration allows for more carriers to settle freight invoices faster
and cheaper. Tell us about that collaboration.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So TCS Blockchain is doing a a fantastic job
of really understanding the pain points of like the trucking
industry and how important right like invoices are being paid instantly,
being able to receive money in your hands so that
they can can continue to operate right And so they've
then applied kind of the blockchain rails and to this
application of invoicing and now been able to give truckers
and give people just their value right away and to
be able to then operate in their financial lives. So
I think it was a great way for them to
just showcase like application and what I really loved about
it also it's in a different vertical a different industry
than we've normally and traditionally talked about like just holistically
as an industry as we've thought about kind of payments
or the application. And this is what I think is
super exciting now and what we'll start to see from
here to the next few years is the applications of
blockchain and stables into more and more verticals, into places
where there are really driving down kind of pain points.
And that was a great like B to B example
of where it helps.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really great, And I love that this technology
is solving problems and you're highlighting different industries, different verticals,
and I think these stories have to be told because
so they don't usually make the headlines. Sometimes it's usually
something you know about the price of this coin went
up and things like that. So I love these type
of stories. Another one that's kind of close to home
to me is YouTube added p YUS, the stable coin
as a payout option for US content creators. How did
that come about?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a thing that we've been very passionate about,
which is how do you help in cross border payments?
How do you provide people more access into everything that
we had just talked about, Right, a stable currency for
where they need it, so more globally if you think
about it, And what YouTube did is apply it within
their US aspect to start with, right, And so I
think it's we have a product called a payouts product
within PayPal and that has multi different ways for YouTube
to be able to pay out for their content creators.
And so we worked internally with our teams and expanded
to have p yusc also as an option in our
payouts product. So if a consumer would want for it
to be in their bank account, they can also obviously
have that, and now they can also have it within
py USC.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 1: We were thrilled to work with Google on this and
expand the payouts partnership and be able to add it
as an additional And what I love about that use
case is it starts to inspire and make it real
for people. It's like because that is a place that
I think there is a major pain point, which is
why we integrated the product in the first place with
pyosc because now all these marketplaces, all these places where
content creators, if you just step away from just specifically
on the Google one, just holistically that market on content
creation and gig workers they do, there's a lot that
get paid overseas, and so that ties into our earlier
conversation of then now not only domestically but also internationally
allowing people to have choice in the way that they
want to get paid, and then depending on where where
it is is like the value that it will matter
most with. So I think it was a great example
in use case of like how to apply a stable
coin into into an aspect of a different again vertical
and way that people would give people choice.
Speaker 2: Now another news item, and you guys have been done
a lot, so I wanted to make sure I go
through all of these. But we've been busy. We've been
busy for sure, and this one I think is pretty
profound with moonpay and m zero they announced p y
u s d X, a framework that allows developers to
issue application specific stable coins backed by p y u
s C. That's pretty incredible to tell us about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is this is a great also example
as you said of like now you have the ability
for developers to build in very seamless and scalable ways
without taking on all the complexity. So mumpey and m
zero have you know, an excellent like infrastructure, have the tools,
have all the development to be able to offer that
in a platform, to be able to offer developers. And
so what are they offering developers. They're offering developers essentially
the ability to get started quickly easily, to be able
to have then their own stable coin and be able
to have their own business that they can build off
of in a very fast way. And ultimately that is
backed by pyosc, which pyosc is holistically in itself as
transparent reserves is like as a you know, a brand
halo around it. And so this partnership is perfect. It
takes the best of what we do, which is offering
our brand is stable coin, the best of what mumpe
and m zero do, which is providing the platform and infrastructure,
and they then have packaged that out into the industry
for developers as a tool to be able to say,
start building. We make this easy for you, and then
you can kind of build your businesses not worry about
these things instead of getting bogged down without actually go
create the experiences you know, and the ideas and bring
those to life. Where these developers have such creative aspects
of So I.
Speaker 2: Want to dive a bit deeper into that just to
have like a real world example. So let's say I'm
Amazon and I want to launch my own stable coin.
So with this PLAT framework, I can do that kind
of like a layer two to p y U s
D with p y U s D used as the
reserves to back my stable coin.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's almost like poys is a reserve, yeah, reserve
asset around it.
Speaker 2: Yet interesting, and how is the p y is the
custodied or is it like in a vault And I'm
assuming moon pay and m zero at the one doing
like the attestation so to speak, or to custody.
Speaker 1: So p y C itself, the papsos is the issuer.
Papsos will do the adjustation on reserves. So none of
that part changes of pyusc itself, that's all transparent, that's
all published, that's all kind of audited throughout.
Speaker 2: Interesting. So it's kind of like a stable coin as
a service type product where it can be almost like
white labeled where almost any retailer or company can do this.
Speaker 1: Kind of Yeah, they've they've and what the beauty of
what they've done is they have the tool developer tools,
infrastructure to be able to provide the things needed holistically
and then this being as a reserve asset. And that's
what I think is the most powerful is like what
developers need is like to get started fast, to be
able to go create what they want but not have
to worry then about they have to create their own
stable point, create then all these like complexities around it.
So plamon Pan has been able to do with them
zero is just like package this up almost kind of
like you said, like as a service type in a
box for them and then go build, Like here's the
infrastructure part that you need to go build and and
create the business that you know they've dreamt of and
and you know fundamentally want to you know, solve some
specific problem that they're building for.
Speaker 2: That's pretty profound. I don't. I don't believe this is
the first of its kind if I'm not mistaken, because
I've not heard of anything like this before.
Speaker 1: I think there's uh, you know what I I I
can't answer. I think I don't know there's a holistic
package that's been that's been out there, so so yeah,
I will. But it is very unique, it is very powerful.
We are super excited about it. Have you know, launching
being out there and being able to provide kind of
service and especially to developers that addresses like a market
you know builders.
Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, And I'm assuming you know, all these things
are possible because the Genius Act has been passed and
that's that's been rolled out, and you know what does
that meant for PayPal's business, you know on the stable coin.
Speaker 1: Side, Yeah, for Genius. I think what it's the most
beautiful thing that it did is it put I think
America back in the in the game a bit. It
provided this you know, showcase of a framework and of
a stance that we want to have, you know, cryptocurrencies
and building and thinking holistically about the crypto industry back
into the game of like being more forefront of innovation,
giving traditional players what they would need to feel like
the permission to play in without worrying about the ambiguity.
And I think that's exactly what it did. It helped
because post Genius, what you saw as a floodgate then
of all the traditional players in the industry now starting
to say more publicly and come out, Okay, we need
to think about what our stable point strategy is. We
need to think about what it means, how do we
use it, how do you apply it, do you create
your own do you not? So it just almost as
if it was permission to engage, and that's what I
thought was really powerful about it and what we started
to see. So it started to make the conversation actually
much easier. Before it was a lot of will there
should there be stable coins, but they're not yet regulated,
there's no frameworks around it. And it took all of
that away, and it's just like, yes, stable coins are real,
stable points are here, they're actually even from a government perspective,
like being talked about and will be regulated. And so
now it's just about so what do you do and
how do you materialize the benefits of it to your
own business?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you mentioned like government's talking about it. This
is such an important item for the US and the
US world reserve, the US dollar continuing to be the
world reserve currency. Many members of Congress, even the President
himself has talked about this, and it feels like it's
another Bretton Woods moment where there is a significant change
in how currency is handled, you know, going back to
the gold standard and coming off the gold standard, these things.
It's it's I think, like a pivotal time in history,
and I think it's going to be looked back as
you know, hey, twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six, that
was the moment we went fully digital so to speak,
with the US dollar and helped it to maintain the
world reserve currency status.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we're just in a very unique in
our lifetime. At least this is probably the first time
I'd say, like it's the first unique moment. We're at
this exact kind of almost crossroads or like this pivotal
change where if you think about the impacts of if AI,
you think about the impacts of blockchain technology and the
application of it, like we are changing the way people interact,
We're changing the way people move value, people even see value,
and people can access value and it's really powerful and
that's what makes us like intersections so exciting to be
in the center of this, to be able to define
and iterate and figure out what that next wave is
as the world is evolving and every day there's something
different and technology is moving at a speed so than
I think we've ever seen it before, and so it's
it's such a beautiful time to be able to be here,
to be present, and to be able to build in
this space.
Speaker 2: There was another news item I wanted to ask you
about where p y U s D is going to
be used to support USD DOT AIS on chain financing
for AI infrastructure including GPUs and data centers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's another example of exactly what we talked about, right,
which is a reserve kind of asset aspect. So they
have an idea where they are helping provide financing to
get access to kind of the GPUs and to be
able to do it with you know, with with capital
and being able to access it. And so here again
p y U s T is more in the back
end of this, but a reserve asset. So I think
it's what I love about this is it starts to
show like where the cryptonative ecosystem has continued to develop
and build in these applications and use cases, but doesn't
need to go on solid of everything it can actually
rely on than a reserve asset. That's you know again,
has that transparency, has that aspect that brings brings the
credibility and takes away the complexity.
Speaker 2: May everybody in their uncle as a result of the
Genius Act, Passing is looking to launch a stable coin,
right even the banks are talking by doing so. Certainly
there's going to be more than one obviously, uh maybe
more than a handful, But could there be too much
saturation over time where there needs to be some consolidation
and you know, PayPal being one of the leaders in
payments with a huge brand, huge network, look to acquire
somebody these other stable coin players and build up its
you know network even further. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think the you know, the the thing about where
we're at and state like focus is incredibly important, and
so like being diligent and thoughtful about what really is
the next step. I think we're right now and payments
are emerging as.
Speaker 2: A use case.
Speaker 1: How do we take what we have and actually show
this show these movements and moments and value to consumers,
merchants and integrate in the network. So at this point
I agree with you, like, I don't think while everybody's
like figuring out do they partner, do they build? Do
they buy aspect, we've already we've already been in that decision.
We've already created our own and built you know, have
our own obviously with Taxis being the issuer, but we
have our own branded one and so now it's like, okay,
so we've already passed that kind of question that I
think a lot of people are still entering into. We've
passed that question for us. It's like utility and application.
It's like, how do I now make this into real payments,
real adoption and real people using it and materializing it?
And those are the problems we're thinking about and solving.
How do you ignite the flywheels? How do you start
giving it in more hands to more people around the
world in our ecosystem. I think to your point, a
lot of other companies are starting on this debate. You know,
what do they do? What should their approach be? And
exactly that, Like, if they start now, there's probably going
to be there will be there's going to be a
lot of players trying to get in. Not all of
them will succeed. Some only want it enclosed wall gardens,
some will leave it open, And so you get into
this aspect they really should think through of like really
how much complexity should they take on and where do
they want to play as they see the world and
it's changing.
Speaker 2: So speaking of the world and how it's changing, I
think it goes without saying the future is more digital
than today, right, We're not going backwards, and certainly the
younger generation are more digitally savvy. You know, for the
most part, they're doing everything on their smartphone. I think
I heard Sandy call from Franklin Templeton and I want
to give her credit for this. You know, we're heading
away from the account based setup to the wallet based setup,
and obviously Aypal it's clearly doing that. Are there any
interesting trends or anything you're It might be too early
to answer this question, but that you're seeing with the
younger generation. I don't know if you guys track things
like that, and how they're adopting crypto via Venmo and
PayPal and even the use of p y USD.
Speaker 1: I think it's I mean, and actually, you know, it's
just fascinating because wherever you go, you will you will
probably you hear this, like you hear somebody at a conference.
They'll be like, my daughter came up to me and
has bought bitcoin or or has engaged with the sable
one is explaining to their parents like what this is.
So I actually definitely think you're spot on, Like I
think there is a generational thing where they have actually
getting introduced into digital value, straight into cryptocurrencies, and so
I think they're they're they're also in a world where
like they are engaging and adopting and having to like
materialize what the move of technology so fast, Right, So
they've gotten used to TikTok and they've gotten new to Instagram.
They've grown in a digital world themselves. They've had iPads
since they were like I don't know two three some
of them, and that's what the first device that they
learned on. Right, So it's a generation that is learning
digital native straight from the start, and they have adopted
and understand. You also see this sense. I think it's
just a broader trend is that I look around at
least from just my people that I talk to you
see this trend of like economic freedom emerging in the
in the in the also the younger generation, Like the
traditional way that people have looked at assets and wealth
and growth is not necessarily how the younger generation is
looking at it, and so the adoption of kind of
trying to find their way of economic freedoms. Right. I
was just having this debate with a colleague on like
he's you know, he's abating do I buy a house?
Do I not buy house? And he's like, it's just
people have even seen like real estate in a different
way where traditionally used to be like the foundation you'd
have to have a home, and that's what like the
you know, the American dream it was, and now it's
actually I feel like it's all changing a little bit
and how people view the world for how to grow wealth,
for how kind of global and accessibility really matters. And
so I think these are components and thinking about a
digital first world that everybody is growing into. I mean,
you think about your like, at least for me, my
phone is the one thing that I know I never
am anywhere without and that wasn't true like maybe like
ten years ago, like right, So it's amazing how attached
we get and how reliant we get on technology and
how ingrained it becomes in our lives.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny because you know, in the movies and
books and things like that, when I was growing up,
you think we're shown a cyborg and it was like
the machine is part of the person, right, But it's
not like that. But the point is it is a
bit like it because we have our phones with us.
Plus we may have an AI agent and you know,
doing things for us. So it's like a different form
of a cyborg that we were becoming.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's uh, it's it's very fascinating. And now the
A agent maybe in the future is doing some you know,
actions for you and like shopping for you or whatever
it may be. There's people that use it for conversations,
design conversations, emotional conversations. Like it's it is very fascinating
how how people are adopting engaging and really and really
kind of materializing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I have an eight year old daughter, so I've
already started teaching her about blockchain, and I told her, like,
there's some bitcoin here on a hardware wallet that's going
in to save you know, when when you're eighteen, you
can access it. Uh, things along those lines, like just
teaching about AI and blockchain and all those things, because
by the time she's an adult, it's gonna be even
more prominent and you know, running behind the scenes. Oh
for sure.
Speaker 1: Has she has she adopted like AI still? Has she
gotten kind of familiarity with it? Or have you taught her?
Are you teaching her kind of the components?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So some of it they're teaching in school. But
I've been like highlighting like some of the AI services
like a chat, GPT, certainly teaching about blockchain tech and
things like that. So I quit her from time to time.
That's awesome.
Speaker 1: I'm sure she does not love that, but that's okay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, She's like, okay, dad, Yeah, this is what it is,
and then she moves on.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you later, So thank you later.
Speaker 2: That's sure. Yeah, for sure. I know PayPal has been
doing an incredible amount of initiatives around and I feel
bad asking you this question because we went through so much.
But what's on your roadmap for the remainder of year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we will. You'll continue to see us be pretty consistent,
So we will be just driving down into more and
more integrated experiences and the payments, so and just you know,
figuring out how to ignite better more the experiences we have.
So I think that's you know, and then of course
any key kind of partnerships that may come to life,
as you've seen a few that you've already mentioned today.
So we hope to continue the momentum on all fronts,
so from adoption to continued reach and distribution and really
just bringing these use cases and utility to the world.
Speaker 2: There's something I forgot to ask you earlier, and it's
about tokenization. So the tokenization market is heating up with
stocks and equities and gold and other commodities being tokenized.
It's PayPal looking into doing anything along those lines or
integrating those assets once they become you know, fully mature
so to speak, and there's infrastructure in place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, at this time, we're still kind of focused on
that earlier parts that I talked about, So it's just
we already have pretty much a tokenized and so how
do we take you know, how do we take the
yosc How do we drive more experiences for people and
integrate into PayPal. So it kind of goes back to
our area of like when you're a when you're a
small animal team, you got your resources, you've got to
really double down and focus. Otherwise it's easy because like
you said, you know, it changes a lot to encryption
and there's so many things emerging that you have to
like phase your approaches and what do you do first, second, third,
and making sure you get some things right before you
move on to the next and next thing. So it's
definitely something we've thought about. It's something we because it
is really really becoming pretty predominant to your point, on
this area of it. But it's it doesn't mean we
have to necessarily integrate it ourselves. It's how do you
now partner or look at the different players and how
could we become a settlement later, like you start to
have different conversations. You don't need to build and own everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, great point. And I know you guys are working
with pakso so I immediately thought of packs, gold and
you know things like that. But you know, crawl, walk, run,
and I think you guys are doing an amazing job
on the stable coin front, So I think maybe once
that's ready, then you guys will branch out to other
things maybe yeah, yeah, good stuff. May I didn't want
to ask you about the Clarity Act. You know that's
kind of stuck in Senate right now. But let's say
we get it through this year or maybe early next year.
What impact do you think that will have on the
crypto industry.
Speaker 1: I think it's really like helps on kind of the
tradinglative legislation front. So I think that look, the more
not to pun the word here, but clarity, But the
more clarity and the more like frameworks that we can
provide the crypto industry, then the faster that the crypto
industry will continue. I know, it feels like it may
slow down in a sense because now there's regulation you
got to like start applying and thinking about. But the
reality is clarity and frameworks actually provide innovation to faster
faster in certain cases. It's obviously depending on how and
deep the regulation is, but that's what I think is
very important. I think in the same way Genius helped
on stable coins, I think Clarity will provide the same
and so I think it's very important.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm hoping Congress can get it done. It would
be just a landmark moment similar to the Genius Act,
and we could see more innovation and building. I got
some wrap up questions here for you. First, if you
could create your own metaverse, what would the theme be.
Speaker 1: Gosh, I'm a bit of a shopper, so it probably
will involve shopping.
Speaker 2: And rapid fire questions.
Speaker 1: Favorite food I love Mediterranean food.
Speaker 2: Nice. A favorite musician or band.
Speaker 1: Wow, I love electronic kind of music, electronic chill music.
So I'm varied within kind of where that falls in,
but more as a genre.
Speaker 2: And favorite movie.
Speaker 1: Love Actually, it's probably the one that I watch every
single Christmas, just because it just I don't know what
it is, A very special one. Favorite book, Oh, that
one's a tough one. Read White Owne might be one
of one of the ones up there. Or the Alchemists
from Pamaquilo actually, or the Petite Friends that's been since
a childhood book of mine, so that might be the
generation one that's lasted the most.
Speaker 2: And when you're not working, what are you doing for fun?
Speaker 1: I am catching up with friends. Yeah, catching up for friends.
Speaker 2: May pleasure chatting with you. I love what PayPal is doing.
We're going to have to do round two. As PayPal
continues to roll out new initiatives and services and much more,
but thank you so much for joining me.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Joan, it's so great to talk
to you.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for tuning in. Please hit the
like button subscribe if you haven't as yet. If you're
listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify or Apple,
please follow and leave a five star rating. Thank you
so much,