Aave freezes PYUSD markets after unprecedented 300T mint and burn

Crypto users were left scrambling on Wednesday after Paxos minted 300 trillion of PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin, then sent it all to a burn address.

Blockchain data showed stablecoin issuer Paxos both minted and burned about $300 trillion worth of the PayPal USD stablecoin within 30 minutes, leaving many crypto users scratching their heads.

In a Wednesday X post following the mint and burn, Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg said Aave would be temporarily freezing trades for PayPal USD (PYUSD) after an “unexpected high-magnitude transaction” of minting and burning the stablecoin. Ethereum blockchain data showed Paxos minting 300 trillion of the US dollar-pegged stablecoin at 7:12 pm UTC and then burning the entire amount 22 minutes later by sending it to an inaccessible wallet.

In a Wednesday X post, Paxos said it had “mistakenly minted excess PYUSD as part of an internal transfer.”

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