PayPal's PYUSD Push: Can Stablecoins Improve Merchant Payments?

PayPal PYPL is strengthening its focus on PYUSD to support its long-term merchant payments business. In the first quarter of 2026, the company moved its stablecoin business into the newly created Payment Services & Crypto business line, bringing together payment processing, merchant solutions and crypto services. This reflects PayPal’s focus on providing merchants with faster and more connected payment options as global commerce continues to expand.

The company’s U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, PYUSD, expanded its availability to 70 markets, allowing more merchants and customers to use the digital currency for cross-border transactions. The expanded reach supports PayPal’s efforts to strengthen its international payment network.

Stablecoins can make payments quicker and more cost-effective by reducing delays and simplifying the movement of funds across countries. As businesses increasingly operate across borders, the company sees rising demand for payment methods that improve transaction speed while lowering costs.

The Payment Services & Crypto division combines Braintree’s payment processing capabilities with fraud prevention, authorization tools and global payment infrastructure. Adding PYUSD to this platform gives merchants another way to accept and transfer funds while benefiting from PayPal’s existing payment ecosystem.

While the stablecoin has made decent progress so far, significant expansion potential remains. Broader adoption by merchants and consumers could improve payment efficiency, lower transaction expenses and strengthen the company’s position in digital payments. The continued expansion of PYUSD is expected to support PayPal’s efforts to build a more flexible and globally connected payments platform.

PYPL Faces Tough Competition in the Payments Space

Block XYZ is expanding Cash App beyond peer-to-peer payments by adding services such as the Cash App Card, direct deposit, borrowing and investing. This broader financial ecosystem is increasing customer engagement, driving Cash App's gross profit climb 38% year over year to $1.91 billion in the first quarter of 2026.

Apple AAPL continues to strengthen its payments ecosystem through Apple Pay, Apple Wallet and Tap to Pay. With Tap to Pay now available in more than 50 markets and record transaction and paid accounts, these services are boosting user engagement and supporting record Services revenue, which reached a record $31 billion in the second quarter.

PYPL’s Share Price Performance, Valuation & Estimates

Shares of PayPal have declined 0.2% in the past three months, outperforming the broader industry but underperforming the S&P 500 Index.
 

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From a valuation standpoint, PayPal shares are trading cheaply, as suggested by the Value Score of A. In terms of forward 12-month P/E, PYPL stock is trading at 8.00X, which is at a significant discount to the Zacks Financial Transaction Services industry’s 17.29X.

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PayPal’s estimates have remained unchanged over the past month. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for full-year 2026 EPS is pegged at $5.30.
 
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

PayPal currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.   
 

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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