PumaPay (PMA) was never meant to be just another crypto coin. Launched in May 2018, it promised to fix one of the biggest headaches in cryptocurrency payments: recurring billing. While most crypto payments require you to manually send money each time - like paying for a Netflix subscription with Bitcoin - PumaPay wanted to flip the script. Instead of you pushing funds to a merchant, the merchant could pull payments directly from your wallet, based on rules set in smart contracts. Think of it like automatic bank debits, but on the blockchain.
How PumaPay Was Supposed to Work
The core idea behind PumaPay was simple but powerful: the PullPayment Protocol. Unlike BitPay or Coinbase Commerce, where you click "Pay with Crypto" and send funds yourself, PumaPay let merchants initiate payments. If you signed up for a monthly gaming subscription or adult content site, the merchant could automatically withdraw the agreed-upon amount from your wallet - no action needed on your part. This was done using something called a PullContract, a smart contract that stored payment terms like frequency, amount, and expiration.Everything ran on the Ethereum blockchain. PMA, the native token, was an ERC20 token - meaning it used Ethereum’s existing infrastructure. That made it easy to store in wallets like MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or Noone.io’s own PumaPay Wallet. The system had two main parts: on-chain (the smart contracts) and off-chain (the mobile app and business dashboard). Merchants used the business console to set up billing plans, while users managed their subscriptions and balances through the app.
Who Was It For?
PumaPay didn’t aim at regular online shoppers. It targeted high-risk industries that traditional payment processors refused to serve: adult entertainment, online gaming, VPN services, and crypto gambling sites. These businesses often get shut down by credit card companies due to chargebacks or regulatory pressure. Cryptocurrency was their lifeline - but even crypto payment processors like BitPay wouldn’t handle recurring billing reliably. PumaPay claimed to fill that gap.For these merchants, the appeal was clear: no chargebacks, no intermediaries, and no approval process. The protocol was free to use, and the tools - wallet, SDK, business console - were designed to be plug-and-play. All you needed was an Ethereum-compatible system. No complex API integration. No bank account. Just a smart contract and a wallet.
Why It Failed
Here’s the brutal truth: PumaPay never gained traction. Its all-time high price was $0.00164. As of November 2025, it trades around $0.000002 - a drop of over 99.9%. That’s not just a market correction. That’s a collapse.Why? Three big reasons:
- No real adoption. Despite targeting high-risk industries, there are zero public case studies, merchant testimonials, or usage stats. No major adult site or gaming platform ever publicly integrated PumaPay.
- Too much friction for users. Asking users to approve pull requests from unknown merchants is a security nightmare. Most people won’t grant a merchant the right to pull money from their wallet - even if it’s automated. The trust barrier was too high.
- Competition got better. While PumaPay was stuck in development, other solutions emerged. Crypto payment gateways like Crypto.com Pay and NOWPayments added recurring billing features. Stablecoins and fiat on-ramps made it easier for merchants to accept crypto without dealing with volatile tokens like PMA.
The technical design was clever, but execution was nonexistent. The team, led by Yoav Dror and Aristos Christofides, stopped releasing updates after 2020. No roadmap. No new features. No community engagement. The website became a ghost town. Even the official GitHub repository hasn’t been updated since 2021.
What’s Left Today?
Today, PMA is a dead asset. Trading volume is negligible. Exchanges like KuCoin and BitMart still list it, but you won’t find it on Coinbase, Binance, or Kraken. The price predictions for 2026? Between $0.000680 and $0.000770 - still 99.9% below its peak. Technical analysts say the next resistance level is $0.0000035 - a level it hasn’t touched in years.Security-wise, the only advice left is generic: use 2FA, never share your private key, keep your wallet updated. Noone.io’s wallet guide is the last remaining piece of official documentation. There are no forums, no Reddit threads, no Discord communities actively discussing PumaPay. The project is functionally dead.
Was It Ever Real?
Yes - technically. The PullPayment Protocol was a legitimate innovation. It solved a real problem: recurring crypto payments. Many developers at the time called it "the first DeFi payment protocol for subscriptions." But innovation without adoption is just a whitepaper. The team built a beautiful engine - but never put it in a car.Compare it to something like Chainlink. Chainlink also started as a niche idea - bringing real-world data to blockchains. But it got real partnerships, real use cases, and real developers. PumaPay had none of that. It was a solution looking for a problem that never showed up.
Should You Buy PMA Today?
Absolutely not.If you’re looking to invest in crypto payments, look at established players like Polygon, Stellar, or even Bitcoin Lightning Network. They have active development, real merchants, and growing usage. PMA has none of that. It’s a tombstone with a ticker symbol.
Some people buy it hoping for a miracle rebound. But with a 78% annual decline against USD and an 87% drop against Bitcoin over the last year, this isn’t a speculative play - it’s a graveyard.
What You Can Learn From PumaPay
PumaPay’s story is a cautionary tale for anyone entering crypto:- Great tech ≠successful product. You need users, not just smart contracts.
- Targeting "high-risk" markets doesn’t guarantee adoption - it often means isolation.
- Without active development and marketing, even the most clever ideas die quietly.
- Don’t fall for the hype of "first-ever" claims. Execution matters more than innovation.
PumaPay isn’t a coin you hold. It’s a lesson. One that shows how easily crypto projects can vanish - even when they start with solid ideas.
Is PumaPay (PMA) still active?
No, PumaPay is not active. The project stopped updating in 2021. The official website is static, the GitHub repo is abandoned, and the development team has not released any new information since 2020. The PMA token still exists on exchanges, but there is no ongoing development, community support, or merchant adoption.
Can I still use PumaPay to make payments?
No. Even if you have PMA tokens in your wallet, there are no live merchants using the PumaPay system. The business console, SDK, and payment infrastructure are offline. The protocol’s pull-payment mechanism no longer functions in the real world.
Why did PumaPay fail when it had a good idea?
It failed because no one used it. The concept of pull-based crypto payments was innovative, but the team never built trust with users or merchants. They didn’t partner with any real businesses, didn’t market effectively, and didn’t respond to user concerns. Without adoption, even the best technology becomes irrelevant.
What happened to the PumaPay team?
The founding team - including CEO Yoav Dror and CTO Aristos Christofides - disappeared from public view after 2020. Their LinkedIn profiles show no recent activity related to PumaPay. No interviews, no blog posts, no conference appearances. The project was effectively abandoned.
Is PMA worth holding as an investment?
No. PMA has lost 99.9% of its value since its peak. Trading volume is near zero, and there is no indication of recovery. Holding PMA is not an investment - it’s a sunk cost. If you own it, consider it a learning experience, not an asset.
Can I convert PMA to cash?
Technically yes - you can sell PMA on exchanges like KuCoin or BitMart. But because trading volume is so low, you’ll likely get a terrible price. There’s no liquidity. Selling may take days, and you’ll probably lose most of what’s left in your holdings.
Is PumaPay built on its own blockchain?
No. PumaPay was always an ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockchain. Although the team mentioned plans to launch its own blockchain in the future, that never happened. All transactions still occur on Ethereum.
What wallets support PMA?
PMA can be stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet that supports ERC20 tokens - like MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or the now-defunct PumaPay Wallet. However, since the project is dead, there’s no official support or updates. Use standard Ethereum wallet security practices: never share your private key, enable 2FA, and keep your recovery phrase offline.
dhirendra pratap singh
12 11 25 / 11:20 AMPumaPay was a dumpster fire wrapped in a whitepaper 🤡 I mean, who lets strangers pull money from their wallet? That’s not innovation, that’s financial Russian roulette. And now it’s worth less than my expired energy drink. RIP, PMA. You had potential, but you were too lazy to even build a Discord server.