A team of former Coinbase executives has announced the launch of TrueX, a new digital asset exchange that will use PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD, as its primary settlement currency.
The non-custodial, stablecoin-native platform was unveiled on September 18 and secured $9 million in seed funding from investors including Paxos, Solana Foundation, and Aptos.
TrueX will work closely with Paxos, the issuer of PYUSD to integrate the stablecoin for settlements. PYUSD, which is backed one-to-one by the U.S. dollar, is one of the largest stablecoins in the market.
Launched in August 2023 through a partnership with custodian firm Paxos, PYUSD’s supply reached 230 million by the end of 2023. Since then, the total supply of the stablecoin has more than doubled, surpassing the 700 million mark this month. This growth places PayPal among the top ten stablecoin issuers, with Tether USD leading the niche with a supply of over 112 billion.
Stablecoins offer price stability by being pegged to specific assets or algorithms, and PYUSD’s U.S. dollar backing provides users with a reliable means of settlement on the new exchange.
Ex-Coinbase execs lead the charge at TrueX
Vishal Gupta, who was formerly the head of exchange at Coinbase and played a key role in launching Circle’s stablecoin, USDC, co-founded TrueX alongside Patrick McCreary, a former senior engineer at Coinbase. McCreary was instrumental in developing Coinbase’s International Exchange. Both Gupta and McCreary have also held senior roles at Goldman Sachs.
“Clients now demand the security of true segregation of execution and custody,” said Gupta. “Our team has worked diligently to meet these needs, leveraging the power of stablecoins to facilitate efficient liquidity and settlement solutions.”
TrueX will first open its services to U.S.-based institutions, with plans to onboard some international organizations as well.
The launch of TrueX is part of a broader trend of institutions entering the Web3 space. Earlier this week, Singapore’s DBS Bank announced that it would begin offering crypto options and structured notes to institutional investors by the fourth quarter of 2024.
Through DBS’s new offerings, professional traders will be able to gain exposure to Bitcoin and Ether and hedge against market volatility using various options structures.
