On October 15, 2025, Paxos, the issuer of PayPal USD (PYUSD), accidentally minted 300 trillion PYUSD tokens due to an internal technical error during a transfer process. The mint occurred at 7:12 PM UTC and was burned 22 minutes later, resulting in a zero net increase in supply, as confirmed by on-chain data from Arkham and Etherscan.
The transaction was equivalent to roughly $300 trillion based on PYUSD's 1:1 peg to the U.S. dollar, an amount that exceeds double the global GDP. Paxos quickly acknowledged the error on X, stating, "Paxos mistakenly minted excess PYUSD as part of an internal transfer… There is no security breach. Customer funds are safe." The company addressed the root cause and ensured no lasting impact.
In response, Aave temporarily froze PYUSD lending markets as a precaution after detecting the unexpected high-magnitude transaction. Omer Goldberg, PayPal’s head of blockchain, reassured users that PYUSD remains fully backed 1:1 with U.S. dollars, and Aave's development arm, BGD Labs, confirmed the protocol's safety. The incident caused a brief 0.5% dip in PYUSD's peg, but it stabilized quickly.
Community reaction on Crypto Twitter blended humor with concerns about centralized control in stablecoins, though the swift resolution prevented wider disruption in DeFi ecosystems. The event highlights the need for automated controls in blockchain-based issuance systems.
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