According to PANews, PayPal's international remittance service, Xoom, is allowing users to transfer its stablecoin, PYUSD, without any fees. This move is part of PayPal's strategy to expand its international remittance market share and increase the use cases for PYUSD, which was launched last year. PayPal currently lags behind Wise in the international remittance market.
In an interview, PayPal Senior Vice President Jose Fernandez da Ponte stated that Xoom senders would not have to pay any conventional fees, which typically average 2% across the industry. Instead, recipients will receive funds in their local currency as usual. He added that Xoom operates in 160 countries and has a network of over 350,000 cash pick-up points. Although Xoom will waive transaction fees for PYUSD transfers, users will still pay in the form of customary foreign exchange spreads.
Fernandez da Ponte believes that PayPal is playing a long game in the stablecoin sector. He thinks that the business model of earning interest from reserves, which is currently profitable for Tether and Circle, will become unviable in the long run as interest rates decline. Instead, he expects PYUSD to generate returns for the company in the form of interest rates and other traditional payment industry services.