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15h ago

Paxos Accidentally Mints $300 Trillion in PYUSD, Then Burns It Within Minutes

The episode is intensifying questions about issuer-controlled minting and Paxos’ operational safeguards.

Is Paxos about to settle the world’s debt with this $300T mint?
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Overview

  • On-chain records from Arkham and Etherscan show a roughly $300 trillion PYUSD mint from a Paxos wallet at 3:12 p.m. EST that was burned soon after, leaving total supply unchanged.
  • Paxos attributed the event to an internal technical error, reported no security breach, and said customer funds are safe after addressing the root cause.
  • Aave temporarily froze PYUSD lending markets as a precaution, with its development arm BGD Labs describing the over-mint as an operational mistake and affirming protocol safety.
  • PayPal’s head of blockchain, Omer Goldberg, said PYUSD remains fully backed 1:1 with U.S. dollars and confirmed the excess tokens were destroyed.
  • The incident lands as Paxos seeks an OCC national trust charter under the GENIUS Act, drawing watchdog criticism and spotlighting that the mint-and-burn cost about $2.66 in gas fees.