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Paxos accidentally minted 300 trillion PYUSD on Ethereum because of a technical glitch.
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The error was fixed within 30 minutes, with all excess tokens burned.
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No funds were lost, and DeFi protocols briefly froze PYUSD as a precaution.
A Record-Setting Minting Error
Stablecoin issuer Paxos accidentally created 300 trillion PYUSD tokens on Ethereum on Wednesday afternoon due to a technical error. The company confirmed that the issue occurred at 3:12 p.m. ET and was resolved within 30 minutes.
In a post on X, Paxos wrote, “There is no security breach. Customer funds are safe. We have addressed the root cause.” The tokens were burned immediately after the incident was detected.
Temporary Market Impact
The minting error originated from a Paxos hot wallet and sent tokens to PayPal’s official PYUSD smart contract. The figure — equivalent to $300 trillion — exceeded even the size of the global economy.
DeFi platform Aave temporarily froze PYUSD markets as a precaution, while the stablecoin briefly lost its $1 peg before stabilizing once the excess supply was removed.
PYUSD Maintains Market Confidence
Paxos later minted 300 million PYUSD as part of normal operations. With a market cap of $2.6 billion, PYUSD remains the sixth-largest stablecoin globally, underscoring how swiftly Paxos handled the issue without lasting disruption.
