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Looking back over the past half decade or so, investors can learn a lot about changing industry and macroeconomic forces and how they impacted certain companies. There were some companies, for example, that thrived before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. But in recent years, they have struggled a lot.
One business, which previously showed unstoppable momentum, has been particularly hard hit. Wall Street has wiped $325 billion off its market capitalization in less than five years.
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From July 2021 historical high stock price to February 5, 2026, PayPal‘s (NASDAQ: PYPL) The market cap has been wiped from $363 billion to the current $38 billion. As a result, shareholders have recorded massive losses. The fintech stocks it is trading at 87% of its peak.
Market sentiment has clearly taken a dramatic turn, from euphoria to extreme pessimism. The optimism was understandable. Between 2019 and 2021, PayPal’s total payment volume, revenue, and net income increased by 76%, 43%, and 70%, respectively. Dan Schulman, CEO at the time, even projected that the business would reach 1 billion users.
Then came death and darkness. Once the economy reopened and consumer behavior began to normalize, PayPal’s growth slowed dramatically. Revenue grew by just 4% in 2025. Transaction count declined last year. The user base is essentially flat. In addition, the company only hired its second CEO in less than three years.
The biggest risk for PayPal is surprisingly clear. It must be their competence. This may come as a shocking revelation to some investors, especially since this business has a well-regarded brand name in the payments world. Additionally, as a two-sided scaled ecosystem, PayPal benefits from a network effect.
But the payments landscape couldn’t be busier. stripe, Adyen, Shopify, Global payments‘ Worldpay, i blog‘s Square are formidable opponents on the merchant side, going up against PayPal’s Braintree.
When it comes to individuals, there is a list of companies in broader categories within financial services, such as Block’s Cash app, wise, SoFi Technologiesi American Expressto think about it
The phenomenal rise of Apple Pay and alphabetGoogle Pay can’t be overlooked. They have the advantage of being integrated with the two most popular smartphone operating systems, iOS and Android.
