Coin Metrics is committed to building the crypto economy on a foundation of truth, providing authentic and accurate data with the highest standards of clarity and precision. With this mission in mind, we are proud to share our August edition of Movers and Shakers, the monthly resource aiming to bring more transparency and credibility to the rapidly evolving crypto space.
As new assets reach a certain degree of accessibility to investors, specifically as they achieve alignment with our Market Selection Framework and the Trusted Volume Framework, Coin Metrics uses its crypto expertise to describe the assets’ context of use. The following assets are expected to reach alignment this month:
PayPal USD (PYUSD) is a fiat-backed stablecoin pegged to the U.S. Dollar. PYUSD remains backed 1:1 by cash deposits, U.S. treasuries, and other short-term equivalents. Issued by Paxos Trust Company, PYUSD deposits are regulated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and held in a bankruptcy-remote account. This prevents PYUSD holders from being negatively impacted by Paxos and PayPal insolvency as deposits cannot be used to satisfy external debts. Paxos has employed WithumSmith+Brown, PC, to provide monthly attestations to confirm U.S. treasury and cash equivalent holdings are equal to or greater than the amount of PYUSD outstanding. PYUSD can be sent to others in the U.S. in the PayPal app without fees and used for global remittance payments or purchases where PayPal is accepted.
Wormhole (W) is a cross-chain interoperability protocol providing messaging architecture for developers to build supporting technology. Developers connect smart contracts to the Wormhole Core Contract which is monitored by Guardians. Guardians are off-chain validators operating in a peer-to-peer network to produce Verifiable Action Approvals (VAAs). VAAs are relayed to the target contract to support cross-chain communication and attest to actions across networks. The Wormhole Connect widget enables users and protocols to bridge a variety of tokens across networks. Developers can also create a designated chain to conduct cross-chain governance with NFTs able to participate regardless of their location or query and implement cross-chain data into smart contracts. W tokens are a Solana SPL token with ERC-20 functionality enabled through Wormhole’s Native Token Transfer framework. W tokens can be used to participate in Wormhole DAO governance to vote on proposals including contract upgrades, fee adjustments, and network connections.
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