Paxos Renames Standard Stablecoin as Pax Dollar

Blockchain infrastructure company Paxos is renaming its Paxos standard stablecoin as Pax dollar with the ticker USDP.

• Paxos believes the USDP ticker more easily identifies the stablecoin as a U.S. dollar-backed token, Walter Hessert, head of strategy, said in a blog post Tuesday.
• "USDP reserves are held 100% in cash and cash equivalents. ... This names makes it obvious to anyone – USDP is a dollar," Hessert wrote.
• Paxos asked its ecosystem partners to reflect the stablecoin's new branding ahead of the updated smart contract going live on Aug. 31.
• "USDP is an important step towards making regulated digital dollars ubiquitous," Hessert wrote. "Stablecoins have the ability to transform global payments and USDP is the regulated solution."
• The announcement follows shortly after Circle's confirmation that USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, will be 100% backed by cash and short-term U.S. Treasurys by September.
• There remains however some opacity around the composition of USDT provider Tether's reserves. A breakdown released in May revealed that some 49% of tokens USDT tokens were backed by unspecified commercial paper.
• USDT nonetheless remains by far the world's largest stablecoin, with a market capitalization of over $65 billon. USDP's is $944 million.