Paxos Accidentally Mints $300 Trillion in Stablecoins — Twice the World’s GDP
In a bizarre and short-lived technical incident, Paxos — PayPal’s official crypto partner and issuer of the PYUSD stablecoin — accidentally created nearly $300 trillion worth of tokens, briefly doubling the value of all money on Earth. The event, which lasted about twenty minutes, sent shockwaves through the blockchain community before Paxos quickly contained the issue.
The $300 Trillion Glitch
According to blockchain data and official statements, a routine internal process malfunction led to the minting of over 300 trillion PYUSD tokens. For comparison, that amount is roughly twice the estimated total global GDP. Although the tokens never entered circulation, the mere appearance of such supply instantly raised questions about the safeguards and audit systems protecting stablecoin reserves.Paxos’ Response
Within minutes, Paxos engineers identified the error and burned the excess tokens. The company described the event as an "internal technical fault" and stressed that no customer funds were at risk. Still, the incident reignited long-standing debates about the reliability of centralized stablecoin issuers and the transparency of their backing reserves.Market Impact
The short-lived spike appeared on several blockchain explorers before being reversed. Analysts note that, while the glitch didn’t affect market prices, it demonstrated how fragile confidence in algorithmic and fiat-backed tokens can be. In a market where trust is pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar, even a brief mismatch can trigger speculation and fear of manipulation.PYUSD Today
Launched in partnership with PayPal, PYUSD remains one of the industry’s newer entrants, currently holding a market capitalization of around $2.6 billion, ranking as the sixth-largest stablecoin. Despite this growth, the “$300 trillion glitch” will likely become a cautionary tale — reminding fintech players that even audited code can fail spectacularly.A Lesson in Oversight
The Paxos incident underscores the need for rigorous smart-contract auditing and real-time monitoring of token issuance. As regulators increasingly scrutinize stablecoin projects, transparency and automation fail-safes are no longer optional luxuries but necessities for maintaining trust in the digital dollar ecosystem.Conclusion
While Paxos managed to resolve the crisis in under half an hour, the episode highlights how quickly technical errors can snowball into trillion-dollar anomalies. It’s a stark reminder that in the age of programmable finance, one wrong line of code can briefly make—or unmake—the world’s economy.Editorial Team — CoinBotLab