PayPal Beats Revenue Estimates, Doubles Down on Stablecoin and AI Payments Push

PayPal beat revenue estimates and missed on profit in its latest quarterly results, while confirming it will keep pushing deeper into stablecoins, AI-driven payments, and biometric identity tools.

The payments company reported second-quarter revenue of $8.68 billion, up from $8.29 billion a year earlier and above the $8.47 billion analysts had expected. Earnings per share came in at $1.26, below both the $1.30 posted a year ago and the $1.28 consensus estimate. PayPal also recorded an $81 million non-GAAP adjustment tied to gains and losses on crypto assets it holds for strategic and investment purposes, which it excludes from adjusted results since it does not actively trade those holdings or use them as operating capital.

The bigger signal for the crypto industry was PayPal’s forward plan. The company said it will keep expanding its dollar-backed stablecoin, PYUSD, which it has already rolled out to users in 70 markets through issuer Paxos, letting people buy, hold, send, and transfer it directly from their PayPal accounts to external wallets. Alongside the stablecoin push, PayPal is investing further in AI agent payments and biometric-based digital identity verification, positioning stablecoin infrastructure as a piece of a broader payments and identity strategy rather than a standalone crypto product.

The results land in a rough quarter for crypto markets generally. Q2 2026 marked a third consecutive quarterly loss for digital assets, the longest losing streak since the 2022 bear market, as institutional capital rotated toward AI-related equities and spot bitcoin ETFs recorded their largest quarterly outflow since they launched. A large, mainstream payments company still choosing to expand its stablecoin footprint through that stretch is a notable vote of confidence, even as its own crypto asset holdings dragged on its non-GAAP numbers.

PayPal raised its full-year adjusted earnings guidance to $5.38 per share, up from $5.31 in 2025, suggesting management sees the stablecoin and payments buildout as a growth driver heading into the rest of the year rather than a distraction from its core business.

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