Paxos Accidentally Mints 300 Trillion PYUSD Tokens in Historic Crypto Blunder
The Biggest Crypto Minting Error Ever – In a jaw-dropping blockchain mishap, Paxos, the firm behind PayPal USD (PYUSD), accidentally minted 300 trillion PYUSD tokens on Wednesday during what it described as an internal transfer error.
Largest Accidental Token Mint in Crypto History
The astronomical minting — nearly 14 times the size of the entire U.S. money supply (M2) — was immediately detected and burned, according to a company statement. Paxos clarified that there was no security breach involved, emphasizing that the incident was entirely internal.
To put the scale of the error into perspective, the total broad money supply in the United States currently stands at approximately $21.9 trillion. The amount mistakenly created by Paxos dwarfs that figure, marking what appears to be the largest accidental token mint in crypto history by a wide margin.
Not the First Minting Mistake in Crypto
While Paxos now holds the record for the biggest minting blunder, it isn’t alone. In 2023, Binance mistakenly created $14.5 billion worth of Binance Ethereum (BETH), followed by another $500 million minted in error. Like Paxos, Binance swiftly burned the excess tokens.
The crypto space has witnessed similar incidents before. In 2010, a Bitcoin code vulnerability — known as the “overflow bug” — resulted in the creation of 92 billion BTC in a single transaction. That flaw led to a hard fork to restore order to the network.
More recently, in 2019, Tether accidentally minted $5 billion USDT instead of $50 million, highlighting how even established firms can slip up when managing massive token supplies.
As the digital asset ecosystem matures, the Paxos minting error serves as a powerful reminder of how automation, scale, and human error can collide — even in the most regulated corners of crypto.
