Paxos Review

Paxos - Regulated Blockchain Infrastructure Platform Review

By Heath Muchena | Decentralised News | 1 Sep 2022


What is Paxos?

Operated by Paxos Trust Company, LLC - a New York State chartered limited purpose trust company, Paxos offers blockchain solutions to help tokenize, custody, trade and settle assets for enterprise clients. 

Paxos is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). Trust companies are typically subject to stringent regulatory oversight which makes them safer than most regulated exchanges that only have a BitLicense or Money Services Business (MSB) designation. Paxos has to undergo regular exams and independent third-party audits routinely to have its financials audited and controls assessed across financial reporting, operations, compliance and information security. 

Paxos is also required to meet specific NYDFS capital reserve, consumer protection, compliance, and anti-money laundering requirements. Additionally, Paxos works with Withum, a nationally ranked auditing firm in the USA which independently verifies that the entire supply of USDP for instance, which is the stablecoin managed by Paxos, is consistent with USD reserves in Paxos accounts that are held at U.S. banks. Paxos also publishes monthly reserves holding reports. 

Paxos - Company Profile 

Paxos’ goal is to offer blockchain-based infrastructure that bridges traditional markets with digital asset ecosystems. Paxos has been an early mover in the digital asset space launching the first regulated crypto exchange, itBit in 2012. Paxos was also the first company to be granted a New York State Department of Financial Services Trust Charter for Digital Assets. In 2018, Paxos also made another historic achievement by issuing the world’s  first regulated stablecoin, PAX which has now been rebranded as USDP. Paxos didn’t stop there, the following year it also issued the world’s first regulated gold-backed token known as Pax Gold (PAXG). 

To date, Paxos remains the only company to receive SEC permission to pilot stock trade settlements using blockchain technology. It is also the first crypto-native company to receive preliminary approval for a de novo national Trust Bank charter. The board of Paxos includes credentialed experts including Sheila Bair, Former Chairman of the FDIC and Bill Bradley, Managing Director of Allen & Company and Former U.S. Senator for New Jersey. 

With more than half a billion dollars in funding from leading investors such as PayPal Ventures, OakHC/FT, Declaration Partners, and Mithril Capital, Paxos focuses on three core areas of business operations: 

  • Enterprises Solutions - by providing turnkey APIs that make it possible to whitelabel stablecoins and enable crypto capabilities. 
  • Institutional Trading - by offering regulated tokenized assets and digital asset exchanges for institutions.
  • Settlements - by providing blockchain-based settlement for securities and commodities.

What Products/Services Does Paxos Offer?

Paxos key product offerings include: 

  • PAX Gold - allocated gold stablecoin managed by the Paxos Trust Company, LLC. 
  • Pax Dollar or USDP - US dollar stablecoin managed by Paxos and formerly known as “Paxos Standard” or “PAX.” 
  • Exchange - over-the-counter trading services for Pax Dollar, PAX Gold and BUSD.

To get started with Paxos, a sign up and verification procedure has to be followed. Depending on whether you’re registering as an individual or institution, you’ll be required to submit various documentation and go through the relevant KYC and AML checks. 

548902c4cae9448cd506582de2da338354032896004b1a5f8121546eb443c3c4.png

Source: https://account.paxos.com/login

Some of Paxos’ clients include:

146da9a025f07e78f19ef94784a71b7b852f058b3dce0ea19e0460fca81070e6.png

Source: https://paxos.com/company/  

Paxos Crypto Brokerage 

Paxos provides a crypto brokerage service and regulated blockchain infrastructure with qualified custody, licensing and trading. The capabilities are securely enabled via an API-first platform. 

a2823f33e6b6e6a836238e1a316fa3db7c4362a4f3585d378eefcaea1811d72a.png

Source: https://paxos.com/crypto-brokerage/  

Paxos Stablecoins & Payments

Paxos provides blockchain-based solutions for payments, money movement and settlement with over $19B of stablecoins issued. Paxos reserves are held 100% in cash and US treasuries. This means that customer funds should always be available for 1:1 redemption.

2cfc2e5d530a54754da442ef4313531f7b483bec98afadecce59ac3b0ae3aa37.png

Source: https://paxos.com/stablecoin-and-payments/ 

What’s great about Paxos assets is that they are fully segregated. This means that in the event that Paxos Trust becomes insolvent, under New York banking law, customer assets would not be used to satisfy the debts of Paxos since client assets are actually supposed to be held bankruptcy remote.

13b24c741ffc3bab51924559fc2797f9b172a236dd6f81eaeb3ba11f477a7369.png

Source: https://paxos.com/usdp/ 

Pax Gold (PAXG) 

Paxos offers a digital token that is called Pax Gold (PAXG) and is backed by physical gold. Each token is essentially backed by one fine troy ounce (t oz) of a 400 oz London Good Delivery gold bar, stored in Brink’s vaults. Anyone who owns PAXG actually owns the underlying physical gold that is held in custody by Paxos Trust Company.

50ec7524247071a05092418adde559ae31611f3f274519ae39f01212cf7cde17.png

Source: https://paxos.com/paxgold/ 

6df95a672fe6fd1e53bb64eeb18f8bfede7e7ca81ff88942f5a9ca7b698bbb11.png

What’s great about Paxos is that you can also verify your gold allocation using your wallet address. 

2ccd1177699f49ab19c07f9b68aa5120b8e444d621e31cea19319788f8068f25.png

itBit Exchange

Paxos offers crypto asset trading that is tailored towards institutional investors via the itBit exchange platform which has automated trading solutions for institutions and algorithmic traders.

d95069f5958bd1b627ffc630cba5e123d1c76040364a942d3547f15439273467.png

Source: https://paxos.com/itbit/  

Paxos Settlement Service

Built on a private permissioned blockchain platform that is interoperable with existing settlement systems, Paxos Settlement Service (PSS) utilizes a hybrid settlement model, improved margin, real time multilateral netting and scalable tech. 

ea45936464c5c1e808c1679e605b42151216bc188a5f4bd0f6e1a825ddf92986.png

6696dc5e4feb0e556b86c03d12e6c9024c9a8a7e6fc0d2330a018cc558b2c452.png

Paxos also offers a Settlement Service for Commodities that is meant to deliver fully automated management of the entire post-trade lifecycle; including multilateral payment netting and simultaneous settlement for the OTC commodities market.

d81f481f98a1823067b2f91f896592c6bd3797d340b18b645758dc74c22a7174.png

e8c3cf59e9be360e7b1a3c12ea6f5a3f6130153d33b38a852bffe054fedc5f92.png

Conclusion 

Paxos is a new-age fintech company that is on a mission to modernize finance by mobilizing assets at the speed of the internet. The co-founder and CEO is Charles Cascarilla. Paxos uses blockchain technology to tokenize, custody, trade and settle assets. The entity operates a crypto brokerage, a US equities settlement service, post-trade automation for commodities and FX markets. Paxos also offers a US dollar-backed Stablecoin and PAX Gold - a digital token that is backed by physical gold. Paxos’ customers include PayPal, Revolut, Credit-Suisse, Societe Generale, among others. 

Originally posted on Decentralised News

Trade or invest in crypto with a reliable exchange BTSE. Sign up: https://www.btse.com/en/ref/?c=hcPQeU

For my full list of crypto affiliate links: https://decentralised.news/ecosystem/

Read the best selling book: TOKENIZED TRILLIONS: https://amzn.to/3BA2TOv

Also check out: BLOCKCHAIN APPLIED: https://amzn.to/3oT6QKU

Join our Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/EcvqQaNzsD

Join our Telegram Group: https://t.me/+cTexh7QC3D9mNjdk

Subscribe to our newsletter: https://decentralised.news/newsletter/

 

How do you rate this article?

55


Heath Muchena
Heath Muchena

Founder, Decentralised News For more about me: https://linktr.ee/heathmuchena


Decentralised News
Decentralised News

For the latest in blockchain & digital assets visit https://decentralised.news/

Publish0x

Send a $0.01 microtip in crypto to the author, and earn yourself as you read!

20% to author / 80% to me.
We pay the tips from our rewards pool.