Paxos is a regulated blockchain infrastructure company founded in 2012 and headquartered in New York, United States. The company operates as a trust company under the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and has built one of the most compliance-focused stablecoin and settlement platforms in the industry. Its core business centers on tokenizing real-world assets – dollars, gold, and commodities – and providing settlement infrastructure to financial institutions and crypto exchanges.
Paxos has raised over $540 million across multiple funding rounds, reaching a reported valuation of $2.4 billion after its $300 million Series C in April 2022, led by Oak HC/FT. Other backers include PayPal Ventures, Bank of America, Founders Fund, and Declaration Partners. The company positions itself at the intersection of traditional finance and blockchain – offering stablecoin issuance, crypto brokerage infrastructure, and institutional-grade settlement services.
Its flagship products include USDP (Pax Dollar), a dollar-backed stablecoin fully backed by cash and short-term US Treasuries, and PAXG (Pax Gold), a tokenized gold product where each token is backed by one troy ounce of LBMA-standard gold held in Brink's vaults. Paxos also powers PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin, issued since 2023, which marked one of the most significant partnerships between a legacy payments giant and a blockchain infrastructure provider.
Notable investments and partnerships
Paxos operates primarily as a builder and licensor of blockchain infrastructure rather than a traditional venture investor. Its five disclosed portfolio positions reflect strategic rather than financial investments. The company has entered documented partnerships and equity relationships with:
- Binance – Paxos issued BUSD (Binance USD) from 2019 until February 2023, when the SEC sent Paxos a Wells Notice claiming BUSD was an unregistered security. Paxos ceased minting new BUSD and has since wound down the product. BUSD's market cap fell from a peak above $23 billion to negligible levels.
- Credit Suisse and Societe Generale – Paxos ran its Paxos Settlement Service, a bilateral securities settlement pilot, with both banks as participants. The service was discontinued in 2023 following Credit Suisse's collapse and broader market restructuring.
- Interactive Brokers and DRW – Partners in Paxos's crypto brokerage infrastructure, enabling traditional brokerages to offer digital asset trading without building custody in-house.
- Mastercard – A disclosed partnership for stablecoin settlement on card networks, announced in 2023.
Specific equity-stake investment details across all five portfolio positions are not publicly disclosed in full. Public information about the exact investment terms and minority stakes is limited.
Team
- Charles Cascarilla – Co-founder and CEO. Previously co-founded Cedar Hill Capital Partners, a macro hedge fund. Cascarilla has been the primary public face of Paxos through its regulatory engagements with NYDFS, OCC, and the SEC.
- Rich Teo – Co-founder, focused on Paxos's Asia-Pacific operations. Teo led the effort to obtain a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Major Payment Institution license, which Paxos received in 2023.
- Walter Hessert – Head of Strategy, frequently cited in institutional product announcements.
Recent activity
Between 2024 and 2026, Paxos shifted focus toward international expansion following the BUSD regulatory setback. The company deepened its presence in the Middle East, obtaining approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to issue a dirham-backed stablecoin. It also pushed further into Singapore after receiving its MAS license, positioning USDP as infrastructure for Asian institutional clients.
In the United States, Paxos applied for a national bank charter from the OCC – a move that would allow it to operate federally without relying solely on its New York trust company status. The application remained pending through early 2026, though the regulatory environment for stablecoins grew more favorable following passage of the GENIUS Act framework discussions in Congress.
Paxos's PYUSD partnership with PayPal continued to expand, with PYUSD supply growing past $1 billion on-chain by late 2024 across Ethereum and Solana. This positions Paxos as a core infrastructure provider for the mainstream stablecoin market – a role that differentiates it from pure investment vehicles and gives it durable revenue through issuance fees and reserve yield.
Looking ahead, Paxos's business model depends heavily on favorable stablecoin regulation in the US and continued institutional adoption of tokenized assets. Its compliance-first approach – expensive to build but hard to replicate – is its primary competitive advantage. The BUSD episode showed that regulatory risk i
