Ethereum has seen a surge in imposter tokens following PayPal's announcement of its own Ethereum-based stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD). Launched on August 7, PYUSD is an ERC-20 token pegged to the US dollar at a fixed rate of $1 and will be used as a bridge between fiat currencies and web3. The launch comes after PayPal's exploration into stablecoins since January 2022 and may indicate an agreement between regulators and stablecoin issuer Paxos.

However, scammers have taken advantage of the hype, launching fake PayPal stablecoins on cryptocurrency exchanges like Uniswap. This was partly due to PayPal and Paxos not including the official token address for PYUSD in their announcements. Paxos has since released the official smart contract, token address, and GitHub repository for PYUSD, with a current max total supply of 26.9 million.

The launch of PayPal's stablecoin could impact the crypto industry in the United States, potentially signaling a shift in the current hostile environment for cryptocurrencies.