Paxos Trust Company is a New York-based financial institution and technology company specializing in blockchain. The company's product offerings include a cryptocurrency brokerage service, asset

tokenization Tokenization may refer to: * Tokenization (lexical analysis) in language processing * Tokenization (data security) in the field of data security * Word segmentation * Tokenism Tokenism is the practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic ...

services, and

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

services. ItBit, a

bitcoin exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

run by Paxos, was the first bitcoin exchange to be licensed by the

New York State Department of Financial Services The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS or NYSDFS) is the department of the Government of New York (state), New York state government responsible for regulating financial services and products, including those subject to the Consol ...

, granting the company the ability to be the

custodian Custodian may refer to: Occupations * Janitor, a person who cleans and maintains buildings * Goalkeeper, in association football * Fullback, in rugby, also called a sweeper * Legal guardian or conservator, who may be called a custodian in some ...

and exchange for customers in the United States. Paxos was founded in 2012 and is based in New York City, with offices in London and Singapore. , the company has received $540 million in funding.

History

Charles Cascarilla and Rich Teo founded Paxos in 2012 as the itBit Bitcoin exchange. In 2015, the company changed its legal name from itBit to Paxos Trust Company. At the same time, the

granted Paxos a limited-purpose trust charter, making it the first company in the U.S. approved and regulated to offer crypto products and services. The company received $65 million in a funding round in May 2018. In September 2018, Paxos launched the Paxos Standard stablecoin as one of the industry’s first regulated stablecoins. Paxos introduced PAX Gold, the first regulated gold-backed digital token, in September 2019. In October 2019, Paxos received a

no-action letter A no-action letter is a letter written by the staff members of a government agency, requested by an entity subject to regulation by that agency, indicating that the staff will not recommend that the agency take legal action against the entity, shoul ...

from the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

(SEC) to test a new settlement service for U.S.-listed equities on a private blockchain. The service went live in February 2020. In July 2020, Paxos launched its crypto brokerage with

Revolut Revolut is a British financial technology company that offers banking services, but did not have a UK banking licence. Headquartered in London, it was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers accounts featuring currency ...

as the first client. In October 2020,

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

announced that it would offer cryptocurrency buy, hold and sell services to its users through a partnership with Paxos.

Products

Crypto brokerage

Paxos provides a crypto brokerage so clients can give their customers access to the cryptocurrency market. The company manages the regulatory and technology components of cryptocurrency trading on behalf of its clients.

Paxos Standard

Paxos Standard (PAX), launched in September 2018, is one of the industry's first regulated stablecoins, tied to the U.S. dollar such that 1 PAX = 1 USD.

PAX Gold

PAX Gold (PAXG) is a digital asset backed by physical gold. Paxos Trust Company is the custodian for PAX Gold tokens and their associated physical gold bars.

itBit

ItBit is a digital asset exchange approved by the New York State Department of Finance to trade five digital assets: bitcoin (BTC),

Ethereum Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...

(ETH), Bitcoin Cash,

Litecoin Litecoin ( Abbreviation: LTC; sign: Ł) is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 201 ...

(LTC), and PAX Gold (PAXG).

Post-trade services

Paxos provides post-trade automation services for precious metals and other trades. Services include automation of trade confirmations and settlement among multiple parties.

Securities settlement service

In October 2019, the SEC gave Paxos permission to establish a settlement service for stock trading. Credit Suisse and

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

were the first banks to sign on to use the service. Paxos announced it had settled a securities trade on a blockchain for the first time in February 2020.

References

{{Cryptocurrencies Financial services companies based in New York City Financial technology companies 2012 establishments in New York City