On Monday, in an open letter addressed to Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump, Paxos Co-Founder and CEO Charles Cascarilla outlined the need for stronger U.S. support for blockchain technology, cautioning that America’s financial leadership could be at risk.
Paxos is a regulated fintech company that provides blockchain infrastructure for managing digital assets, mainly working with financial institutions. Founded in 2012, Paxos is known for issuing stablecoins, including Pax Dollar (USDP) and PayPal USD (PYUSD), both pegged to the U.S. dollar and backed by reserves for added security and transparency. The company also offers a same-day settlement service for stock trades, allowing banks and brokerages to complete trades more efficiently.
In addition, Paxos provides a crypto brokerage solution that powers crypto services for companies like PayPal and Revolut, giving their customers access to buy, sell, and store digital assets securely. It also offers secure custody and tokenization services, enabling the representation of real-world assets on a blockchain.
Cascarilla stated that the traditional financial system in the U.S. is “closed, outdated, and inefficient,” likening its pace to that of the postal system in today’s fast-moving digital economy. He emphasized that blockchain presents a path forward by providing a more accessible, transparent, and secure way to conduct financial transactions.
Cascarilla pointed out that despite widespread smartphone usage, more than 20% of Americans and 40% globally remain unbanked or underbanked. He mentioned that blockchain and digital assets—especially stablecoins or “digital dollars”—offer a critical update to the payment infrastructure, enabling broader participation in the economy while bolstering the U.S. dollar’s global status. According to Cascarilla, this shift is no longer theoretical; it’s already unfolding.
As Paxos CEO, Cascarilla urged both candidates to support a welcoming and clear regulatory framework for digital assets. He noted that Paxos, a leader in tokenization and blockchain infrastructure, has adhered to strict regulatory guidelines since inception. He pointed out to Harris and Trump that in 2015 Paxos became the first digital asset company in the U.S. to secure a limited purpose trust charter from the New York Department of Financial Services.
However, Cascarilla raised concerns over what he described as regulatory “overreach” in the U.S., which he claims has driven Paxos and its peers to seek clearer regulatory pathways in other countries. According to him, regions such as Singapore, the UAE, and the European Union have set up productive regulatory regimes, positioning them as hubs for blockchain advancement.
In his closing remarks, Cascarilla encouraged bipartisan collaboration on a stablecoin framework to reaffirm U.S. leadership in digital finance. Without such changes, he warned, jobs, capital, and expertise in blockchain could increasingly shift offshore, which could weaken U.S. economic competitiveness and security.
Featured Image via Pixabay
