The US SEC has ended another high-profile investigation into a crypto-related firm after dropping inquiries into PayPal’s PYUSD stablecoin.

Financial technology titan PayPal confirmed this development in its Q1 financial report, released on Tuesday, April 29. It revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has ended its probe into its stablecoin, PYUSD.

PayPal’s Stablecoin Business on the Loose

The Wall Street securities watchdog launched an investigation into PayPal’s PYUSD in November 2023, three months after its launch. The prominent payment firm disclosed that the US SEC served it with a subpoena, requesting documents related to the stablecoin.

However, its recent regulatory filing disclosed that the SEC confirmed in February that it was ending the over one-year investigation without any enforcement action. The recent development adds to the growing list of crypto-related firms the commission has let off since Donald Trump resumed office.

Recall that the US SEC has officially ended its litigation and investigation against Coinbase, Kraken, and Consensys, while Robinhood, Crypto.com, and Uniswap, among others, disclosed that the regulator has also agreed to drop charges against them.

Remarkably, the regulator noted in Coinbase’s case that the move marked its efforts to end regulation by enforcement and, through the newly formed Crypto Task Force, reform its regulatory approach towards the sector.

Meanwhile, the disclosure comes on the heels of a better-than-expected financial report from PayPal. For context, it beats Wall Street’s expectation of $1.16 per share to record impressive earnings of $1.33 per share for the first quarter of the year. The firm’s revenue also grew 1% year-over-year to $7.8 billion.

PayPal Introduces Strategies to Boost PYUSD

The fintech’s PYUSD token has failed to gain traction in the stablecoin sector amid continued dominance from Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC. The duo controls 62% and 26% of the fiat-pegged industry’s market cap, respectively, and almost 90% combined.

Meanwhile, PYUSD ranks sixth in the sector, with a valuation of only $880 million, less than 1% of USDT’s $148 billion and 14% of USDC’s $62 billion. Nonetheless, PYUSD has grown 76.7% from $498 million at the start of the year to its current valuation, signifying increasing traction.

Moreover, PayPal has introduced new strategies to enhance the stablecoin’s utility. On April 23, it announced a new scheme that offers US users a 3.7% annualized yield for holding the PYUSD stablecoin on PayPal and Venmo. This latest loyalty offering will resume in the summer of 2025.

A day after the announcement, PayPal also unveiled a partnership with the leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase. The fintech firm disclosed that the extended collaboration aims to drive innovation in stablecoin-based solutions, starting with a fee-free and 1:1 redemption of PYUSD on the Coinbase trading platform.