Stablecoin Wars Heat Up; A $999 High-Art NFT; Infrastructure Bill Is Back

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang and his self-portrait Exploding the Self, which is being sold as an NFT next month. Photo by Luo Sang, courtesy of Cai Studio.

Hannah Miller

Paxos, one of the smaller companies competing for share in the growing market for stablecoins, is undergoing an image makeover. The New York-based company said Tuesday that it renamed its Paxos Standard stablecoin as Pax Dollar, with USDP as its ticker symbol. Paxos said the change will help customers more easily grasp that USDP is backed by the U.S. dollar. The stablecoin’s new name is also very similar to a competitor’s—USD Coin is usually abbreviated as USDC.

The name change is likely an attempt to help it capture more customers. While tether and USDC are the top stablecoins—digital currencies tied to hard assets—by market cap, USDP is seventh, according to CoinMarketCap. And by emphasizing USDP’s dollar backing, Paxos could be looking to rise above the brouhaha surrounding the reserves behind tether and USDC.