Venmo turns on PYUSD access on Arbitrum for 67 million monthly accounts

By George Tsagkarakis - Owner Last updated: August 26, 2026 5 Min Read

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In Brief:

Contents

What Venmo users get Arbitrum was the first L2 Liquidity still sits elsewhere

Eligible Venmo users can now buy, sell, send and use PYUSD on Arbitrum, the network said in announcing the rollout.
Venmo supports more than 67 million monthly active accounts, making it one of the largest consumer distribution points yet for a stablecoin on an Ethereum L2.
PayPal deployed PYUSD on Arbitrum in July 2025, but retail access through its own apps lagged the contract by more than a year.

Eligible Venmo users can buy, sell, send and use PYUSD on Arbitrum, Arbitrum said in a post announcing the rollout. Venmo supports more than 67 million monthly active accounts.

The move closes a gap that had been open since mid-2025 between where PYUSD was deployed and where ordinary users could actually reach it. PayPal put the token on Arbitrum in July 2025. Consumer access inside Venmo followed later.

Consumer wallets are adding stablecoin access.
Eligible users on @Venmo can buy, sell, send and use PYUSD on Arbitrum.
Venmo supports 67M+ monthly active accounts.
@ArbitrumView on X ↗

PayPal and Venmo treat PYUSD as a single balance regardless of which chain the funds sit on. Users pick Ethereum, Solana or Arbitrum at deposit and withdrawal rather than managing separate balances per network.

What Venmo users get

There are no fees to buy, sell or hold PYUSD, and no fee to send it to other Venmo users or to PayPal accounts. Network fees apply when sending to an outside wallet address.

Rewards accrue only on balances held inside Venmo or PayPal. The rate is variable and set by PayPal, calculated on average daily balance and paid monthly in PYUSD. PayPal advertised 4% in 2026, up from the 3.7% rate at the program’s April 2025 launch. The program is open to opted-in U.S. customers outside New York.

Arbitrum was the first L2

PayPal announced the Arbitrum deployment on July 17, 2025, making it PYUSD’s third chain after Ethereum in August 2023 and Solana in May 2024. It was the first L2 to carry the token.

The rollout surfaced in the fine print before any announcement. PayPal’s amended terms and conditions, dated July 16, 2025, listed Arbitrum alongside Ethereum and Solana in the PYUSD Stablecoin section. ARB rose 10% in 24 hours once the expansion emerged.

“A key to any cryptocurrency’s success is a robust developer ecosystem,” said May Zabaneh, vice president of product at PayPal, in the July 2025 announcement. Zabaneh framed the multi-chain approach as letting developers pick between Ethereum’s security, Solana’s throughput and Arbitrum's cost efficiency.

PayPal's pitch at the time leaned on settlement in seconds and transaction costs typically under a cent, with contracts portable from Ethereum mainnet without a rewrite. The company named content micropayments, usage-based billing and instant rewards distribution as the use cases those costs open up. Arbitrum’s total value locked stood above $2.5 billion when the release went out.

Liquidity still sits elsewhere

PYUSD’s onchain market cap on Arbitrum One was roughly $311.7 million across 1,133 holders as of April 28, 2026. Total circulating supply was near $3.5 billion in May 2026. The bulk of it remains on Ethereum and Solana.

PayPal and Paxos extended the token past its native chains through LayerZero’s omnichain framework in a deal announced Sept. 18, 2025, adding nine more networks including Aptos, Avalanche, Sei, Ink and Tron. PYUSD now runs across 13 networks in native or bridged form.

Venmo’s own numbers explain why the distribution matters. Monthly active accounts hit 67 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 7% year over year, with total payment volume up 13% in a fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. Venmo revenue grew about 20% to $1.7 billion for the year.

PayPal said in March 2026 that PYUSD is available in 70 international markets across Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America, phased market by market. Some jurisdictions have full parity with the U.S. on buy, sell, hold, send and rewards. Others remain limited pending local regulatory review.

Paxos-issued stablecoins were already growing before Venmo flipped the switch. USDG and PYUSD added roughly $313.6 million in combined market cap over the 30 days ending in mid-August 2026, with USDG accounting for about $305 million of it.