MoonPay and M0 today introduced PYUSDx*, a new offering that enables the creation of application-specific stablecoins backed by PayPal USD (PYUSD). PYUSDx is designed to help builders launch and scale application-specific stablecoins while significantly lowering the technical and operational overhead to get started.
The market is moving quickly toward application-specific stablecoins designed for specific ecosystems, protocols, and business models. The number of newly issued stablecoins with more than $10M in supply increased 89% in 2025 alone1. As demand grows, more builders want to launch branded, application-specific stablecoins without spending months assembling the complex technical and operational infrastructure.
“Building and managing stablecoins at the application layer requires dependable infrastructure,” said Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO and co-founder of MoonPay. “Through PYUSDx, the MoonPay Group is extending its issuance and distribution capabilities to make PYUSD more accessible to developers, reducing the technical and operational complexity of bringing application-specific stablecoins to market.”
PYUSDx addresses a critical gap in the market: enabling developers to launch application-specific stablecoins quickly while leveraging the core foundation of an established stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). PYUSD is issued by Paxos Trust Company, NA, a federally regulated national banking association, while PYUSDx is a distinct tokenization and issuance framework offered by MoonPay Digital Assets Limited that enables developers to create application-specific stablecoins backed by PYUSD.
“Developers of crypto applications have been early adopters of custom stablecoin-backed technology, but they still don’t have a trusted platform they can use to quickly bootstrap solutions,” said Luca Prosperi, CEO of M0. “PYUSDx will allow developers to iterate much more quickly within an interoperable solution and with built-in liquidity. We believe every fintech developer will eventually utilize a solution like PYUSDx.”
“The next phase of stablecoin adoption is happening at the application layer. Developers want to build differentiated experiences, but they shouldn’t have to rebuild trusted monetary infrastructure from scratch,” said May Zabaneh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto, PayPal. “We’re excited to see MoonPay and M0 use PYUSDx to help bring new, application-specific stablecoins to market, anchored in a regulated, trusted foundation.”
PYUSDx combines M0’s universal stablecoin and digital token platform with the MoonPay Group’s issuance and distribution infrastructure to provide developers with:
- Branded stablecoins backed by PayPal USD: Launch application-specific stablecoins backed by PYUSD
- Fast time-to-market: Go from build to launch in days, not months
- Cross-chain compatibility: Leverage interoperability across M0’s ecosystem with similar features available across multiple blockchain networks
- Reserve transparency: Support on-chain reporting and reserve validation
- Competitive economics: Designed to offer more flexible economics than other stablecoin-backed products
USD.ai is the first developer building on PYUSDx, using the platform to back an application-specific stablecoin designed for AI infrastructure.
*PYUSDx is MoonPay’s tokenization and issuance framework that enables third parties to create application-specific stablecoins backed by PayPal USD (PYUSD). PYUSDx tokens are issued by MoonPay Digital Assets Limited. The licensing and regulatory treatment of PYUSDx tokens varies by jurisdiction and implementation and is the responsibility of the issuer.
PYUSDx tokens (and any digital tokens issued on the PYUSDx platform) are not PayPal USD issued by Paxos Trust Company, NA or PayPal, are not a PayPal product or service, and are not otherwise affiliated with PayPal or Paxos Trust Company, NA. PYUSDx tokens are not supported for storage, sending, or receiving within PayPal or Venmo accounts and cannot be used to transact on PayPal’s or Venmo’s platforms.
¹ Data sourced from Artemis/The Defiant stablecoin market analysis, December 2025.
