Why have the 430 million users of the world's largest payment platform played almost no role in the stablecoin competition?

PayPal has 439 million active accounts, covering over 200 countries and regions worldwide, with a total payment volume (TPV) of $1.79 trillion, holding about 45% market share in the global online payment market.

What does this mean? Almost one in every two online payments globally goes through PayPal.

However, the stablecoin PYUSD launched by PayPal in August 2023 has a market value of only about $3.9 billion as of April 2026.

In comparison: Circle's USDC has a market value of about $78 billion—20 times that of PYUSD.

A more critical comparison is in on-chain transaction volume: from 2026 to now, the on-chain transaction volume of USDC has reached $2.2 trillion, surpassing USDT's $1.3 trillion, setting a historical record. Meanwhile, PYUSD's 24-hour trading volume has long remained between $100 million and $200 million—USDC's daily trading volume is nearly 100 times that.

This leads to a question worth deep thought: Why have the 430 million users of the world's largest payment platform played almost no role in the stablecoin competition?

The answer lies in a concept that many people confuse—the essential difference between traffic and infrastructure.

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