Paxos is not a forex broker. A search for the name next to the word forex keeps surfacing because comparison sites sort any crypto company into the broker bucket, but the business behind the brand is a chartered US trust company that builds blockchain infrastructure for other firms.
Articles that file Paxos beside retail trading venues describe MetaTrader platforms, currency pairs and leverage. None of that matches the company. Paxos issues stablecoins, runs qualified custody, and supplies the rails that let PayPal, Venmo and Interactive Brokers offer crypto to their own customers. Knowing which of those you are dealing with changes every compliance question that follows.
Paxos is a trust company, not a desk you open an account with
Paxos Trust Company started life in 2012 as the itBit bitcoin exchange, founded by Charles Cascarilla and Rich Teo in New York. In 2015 it became itBit Trust Company and received the first limited purpose trust charter for digital assets from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). A trust charter is bank like supervision: the company must keep client assets fully segregated, hold capital reserves, and submit to ongoing examination rather than a one time licence check.
On 12 December 2025 Paxos converted that state charter into a national trust charter overseen by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The firm now describes itself as a federally regulated blockchain infrastructure provider. It also holds a Major Payments Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, granted in 2022, and operates a European entity supervised by FIN-FSA under MiCA, plus an arm in Abu Dhabi Global Market under the FSRA. Because a trust company counts as a qualified custodian, the assets it holds for clients sit in bankruptcy remote accounts.
That regulatory footprint is the opposite of an offshore retail broker. New York and the OCC can examine the books, the Singapore licence covers payments, and the European entity reports under MiCA. None of these permissions exist to let individuals place leveraged currency bets.
What Paxos actually builds
The product shelf is enterprise infrastructure, not a consumer trading screen. Paxos issues several regulated stablecoins. Pax Dollar (USDP), launched in September 2018, is a US dollar token backed one to one, with reserves held in US government securities and a small slice in FDIC insured bank accounts, and with attestations published each month. Pax Gold (PAXG), from September 2019, is backed by one fine troy ounce of gold stored in LBMA vaults. PayPal USD (PYUSD) is issued by Paxos Trust Company for PayPal, and Global Dollar (USDG) is issued through the Singapore and European entities. Paxos frames USDG as a MiCA compliant token and notes that the OCC conversion positions its US issued stablecoins to align with the federal GENIUS Act as that law is implemented.
Beyond tokens, Paxos runs a crypto brokerage that it sells as a white label API. A partner connects once and can offer its users buy, sell, hold and send functions without building custody, licensing or trade execution in house. Paxos said in 2023 that this brokerage had passed ten million active end user wallets and reached roughly half a billion user wallets through partners such as PayPal, Interactive Brokers, OANDA, Mercado Libre and Nubank. Paxos also operates the Paxos Settlement Service, a private blockchain used to settle US listed equities; the SEC granted a no action letter for the pilot in October 2019 and Credit Suisse with Societe Generale were the first banks to join when it went live in February 2020.
The itBit exchange remains part of the group and is approved by NYDFS to trade five assets: bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, litecoin and PAXG. The point is that every one of these products is sold to institutions or embedded in another firm's app.
The brokerage is invisible plumbing, not a retail app
When someone buys crypto inside PayPal or Venmo, Paxos is the counterparty in the background handling custody, liquidity and compliance. The customer never opens a Paxos account and never sees the Paxos name on the order ticket. Interactive Brokers wired up the same enterprise stack in 2021, and OANDA, Revolut, Mercado Libre and Nubank use Paxos rails too. The model matters for diligence: the entity that holds the crypto is Paxos Trust Company, while the entity that holds your login and your cash is the partner app. Charles Schwab uses the same Paxos rail for the sub custody behind its crypto trading service, which shows how far the infrastructure reaches without a Paxos logo ever reaching the customer.
This is the opposite of a retail forex broker. There is no margin account, no contract for difference, no currency pair quoted with a spread, and no MetaTrader or cTrader download. Paxos sells capacity to institutions and does not solicit individual traders with leverage tables.
Why calling Paxos a forex broker is wrong
The confusion is understandable and still incorrect. Paxos touches foreign exchange only at the stablecoin and payments layer, where dollars move on chain rather than through a trading book. A retail forex broker takes the other side of a EUR/USD bet, lends leverage, and earns from spread and swap. Paxos issues the dollar token those systems might settle in, then steps away. Anyone looking for leveraged spot currency should close this page and pick a different firm.
Searches that rank Paxos beside best forex brokers also pull in claims about minimum deposits, bonus offers and account tiers. Those belong to affiliates, not to the company. Paxos publishes no retail account because it runs no retail account.
The Binance BUSD episode and a 48.5 million dollar settlement
Paxos has a documented enforcement record, and naming it is part of honest coverage. In February 2023 the SEC sent a Wells notice arguing that the Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin was an unregistered security, and NYDFS ordered Paxos to stop minting new BUSD. Paxos disputed that BUSD was a security, and the SEC withdrew its Wells notice in 2024.
The more concrete action came from New York. In a consent order dated August 2025, NYDFS found that Paxos failed to conduct proper due diligence on Binance and fell short on anti money laundering and transaction monitoring. Paxos agreed to a 48.5 million dollar settlement: a 26.5 million dollar penalty plus 22 million dollars committed to compliance remediation. The company ended the Binance relationship and stated the issues were historical and since corrected. Regulators watch this issuer, which is different from an insurer standing behind it.
What we could not verify
The earlier draft listed MetaTrader 4, cTrader, leverage up to 1:2000, a 5,000 dollar minimum deposit, risk management tools and withdrawal timelines. We found no primary source for any of them, and they describe a retail CFD broker, not Paxos. Treat them as artefacts of a miscategorised template. We also found no public record that Paxos lacks FCA or ASIC approval, because the relevant question is its US and Singapore supervision, not a licence it never sought.
Our search did not surface a separate enforcement action against the trust company beyond the BUSD matter. Absence of a published action is not a clean bill of health, and it should be checked per entity rather than per brand.
Checking Paxos before you rely on it
Every supervisor named here runs a free register. NYDFS lists Paxos Trust Company among the entities it supervises, with the trust charter shown. The OCC publishes national trust charters and their conditions. The SEC no action letter for the settlement service is on the SEC website, and FIN-FSA covers the European stablecoin entity under MiCA.
For the Singapore piece, search the MAS Financial Institutions Directory for the Major Payments Institution licence. Then read the contract of whatever app you actually use: if it is PayPal, Venmo or Interactive Brokers, the agreement names that company, and Paxos appears as the underlying custodian and broker. Matching the name on your screen to the name on the register is the step that turns marketing into fact.
Stablecoins and digital assets carry loss risk. Tokens can fall below par, redemption depends on the issuer, and blockchain settlement does not remove market risk. Read the disclosures attached to the specific product before treating any token as cash.