The original online-payments giant, now defending a ~$53B market cap against Stripe, Apple Pay, and its own Venmo.
Updated · Analysis by Trace Cohen · paypal.com
+4% YoY
+4% YoY
+7% YoY
as of FY2025
TPV $486.4B, +10% YoY
PayPal trades on Nasdaq under ticker PYPL; as of late August 2026 shares traded in the $60–$62 range, putting its market capitalization at roughly $52–54 billion. That figure moves with the stock daily — PayPal has traded between about $38 and $79 over the past 52 weeks — so treat it as a snapshot, not a fixed number.
PayPal makes most of its money by taking transaction fees on payment volume moving through PayPal checkout, Venmo, and Braintree (its developer-focused processing arm) — a cut of every dollar merchants and consumers move across its network, plus fees on cross-border transactions.
It also earns from value-added services: interest and fees on 'Pay in 4' buy-now-pay-later loans, PayPal Debit/Credit card interchange, PayPal Rewards, and merchant working-capital lending. Braintree — which also processes for merchants that don't otherwise use PayPal branding — is an increasingly important, more commoditized volume driver that management has said carries thinner margins than branded PayPal checkout.
PayPal has been publicly traded since its 2002 IPO (originally as a unit of eBay), was spun off as an independent public company from eBay in 2015, and has raised no further private capital since — it funds growth from operating cash flow and periodically returns capital via buybacks (roughly $1.5B repurchased in Q2 2026 alone).
The larger, faster-growing private rival for developer-first and enterprise payments.
Competing consumer wallet and in-person merchant payments.
Public enterprise-payments rival with a leaner, higher-margin model.
Wallet-layer competitors squeezing PayPal's checkout share at the point of sale.
PayPal's problem was never revenue — $33B a year and still growing — it's that the market has stopped paying a growth multiple for a company whose core checkout button is getting boxed in by Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and Stripe's developer-first distribution. A ~$53B market cap on $33B of revenue is a value-stock multiple for a company that used to trade like a growth story. The Q2 2026 numbers (revenue and TPV both beating estimates, margins improving, big buybacks) suggest management has pivoted to a 'shrink to grow profitably' playbook rather than chasing volume — the real test is whether Venmo and Braintree can reaccelerate top-line growth before the multiple re-rates further down.
PayPal's market capitalization was roughly $52–54 billion as of late August 2026, with shares trading around $60–$62 on Nasdaq (ticker PYPL). This changes daily with the stock price.
PayPal earns transaction fees on payment volume processed through PayPal checkout, Venmo, and Braintree, plus revenue from Pay in 4 buy-now-pay-later loans, PayPal Debit/Credit card interchange, PayPal Rewards, and merchant lending.
PayPal reported $33.2 billion in revenue for full-year 2025, up 4% year over year, on $1.79 trillion in total payment volume. Q2 2026 revenue was $8.68 billion, up 5% year over year, with TPV of $486.4 billion.
Yes, but slowly by its own historical standards — FY2025 revenue grew 4% and TPV grew 7%, while Q2 2026 TPV grew 10% year over year. Growth has decelerated from PayPal's 2010s pace as Apple Pay, Stripe, and other wallets compete for checkout share.
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Analysis by Trace Cohen · @Trace_Cohen · t@nyvp.com. Figures are as of the update date; verify before relying on them.