The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2012
🌱
2012
Founded as itBit
Charles Cascarilla and Rich Teo launch a regulated Bitcoin exchange; the Paxos rebrand and the bet on regulated crypto infrastructure come later.
Wikipedia
Oct 2020
Oct 2020
PayPal runs on Paxos
PayPal's move into crypto buying and selling runs on Paxos rails — the regulated-infrastructure bet pays off.
Reuters
Apr 2021
📈
Apr 2021
The peak: $2.4B — unicorn and top in one round$2.4B
A $300M Series D at the height of the crypto bull market makes Paxos a unicorn; the same round marks its peak.
CNBC
Feb 2023
Feb 2023
Regulators pull the plug on BUSD
New York's financial regulator orders Paxos to stop minting Binance's BUSD stablecoin, and an SEC notice lands the same month.
CNBC
2023
💔
2023
Slips out of the club
PitchBook's model later pegs the still-private firm at about $997M (end of 2025) — roughly 59% down and a hair below the $1B line, a third-party estimate rather than a priced round.
CNBC
2023–24
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2023–24
Glassdoor reviews stayed mostly warm — employees praised the talent, the pay and well-liked leadership — but a recurring thread described near-constant strategy pivots, with several saying the business plan seemed to change yearly, alongside a 2024 layoff round and stablecoins that struggled for traction against larger rivals.
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Paxos is a US regulated crypto and blockchain infrastructure firm providing stablecoin issuance and settlement services, valued around $2.4B in 2021. Regulatory pressure — including an SEC notice and a regulator-ordered halt to its BUSD stablecoin in 2023 — weighed on the business.
PitchBook's model put its value at about $997M at the end of 2025 — roughly 59% below the 2021 round and a hair under the $1B line — though as a private firm this reflects a third-party estimate rather than a priced round.
Source: PitchBook model estimate as of Dec 31, 2025 (CNBC's fallen-unicorn table, Jun 2026), not a priced round
