Paxos CEO touts blockchain 'transparency success' after 300 trillion PYUSD accident

Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla has claimed that the accidental minting of $300 trillion PYUSD tokens was a success in terms of blockchain transparency, rather than a failure. He defended the Paxos ecosystem, describing the event as a show of how on-chain systems provide immediate visibility into financial transactions. 

Cascarilla spoke on Wednesday at the Federal Reserve crypto roundtable event, noting that the tokens were created on the Ethereum chain through a manual operation lapse but later burned into an inaccessible wallet.

Both operations occurred within Paxo’s internal systems, and no PYUSD left the custody. 

Paxos minting error raises questions ahead of OCC charter review

The minting error briefly sparked concerns across the digital asset space as some community members called it one of the most visible fat-finger moments in blockchain history. The amount of tokens minted was more than twice the global GDP and more than 125 times the supply of U.S. dollars in circulation, according to a recent Cryptopolitan report.

Cascarilla acknowledged that the mistake was entirely Paxos’, and his company didn’t operate at the standard procedures expected of them. He then attributed the error to a manual procedure that is rarely used but was designed to support a secure cold minting process. 

Bitcoin.com CEO Corbin Fraser made a flattering remark online, saying the event was a long way to say we forgot to use the Ethereum Gwei calculator. Sergey Nazarov, Chainlink CEO, noted that his organization solves such an unwarranted minting process. 

The timing of the incident is also sensitive for Paxos as it is currently seeking the national trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), a provision required under the GENIUS Act.

Circle and Ripple have already received the charter to operate as a form of bank. The minting error raises the question of whether Paxos and other stablecoin issuers are prepared for banking-level supervision.

Cascarilla says blockchain transparency will reshape oversight 

Cascarilla argued that the transparency of blockchain networks may help regulators to identify risks quickly compared to traditional finance systems. He believes banks can hide such incidents from the public, providing an element of opacity that is not possible with blockchain tech.

The stablecoin market has sustained its growth, with transaction volumes surging over 83% year-over-year between July 2024 and July 2025, reaching over $40 trillion, according to an analytics report by TRM Labs. The market accounted for 30% of all crypto transaction volume, up from only 22% last year. As of now, all-time stablecoin transaction volume has climbed to $273.7 trillion with 19.8 billion transactions since 2019.

The total market capitalization of stablecoins stands at approximately $308 billion, led by Tether’s USDT, with a supply of $182.54 billion. Circle’s USDC maintains the second position with approximately $76 billion in circulation. TRM Labs revealed that the U.S. leads in crypto volume activity, with a 50% year-over-year increase. It also noted that South Asia is the fastest-growing region for crypto adoption.

Paxos, issuer of PYUSD and Pax Dollar (USDP), has maintained its mission to scale access to on-chain finance by partnering with platforms and seeking compliance and security. The firm revealed interest in issuing the USDH Hyperliquid-backed stablecoin, although its proposal was not successful. Native Markets was favored to issue the native stablecoin for the Hyperliquid ecosystem.

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