What Happened to Retail Stablecoin Redemption at Paxos?

I used to think of Paxos as a special kind of stablecoin issuer - one that others should look up to. The reason was simple: Paxos consistently positioned its stablecoins as direct equivalents of US dollars. Anyone could sign up on the Paxos website, deposit stablecoins and receive actual dollars in return. The Internet Archive preserves a snapshot of a page where Paxos explained this for PAX and BUSD tokens.

In addition to PAX and BUSD, Paxos also issued HUSD stablecoins. The company described them in the same way, although no such evidence seems to have survived even in the Internet Archive.

Today, BUSD and HUSD are no longer issued. Paxos now has two main stablecoins: PYUSD and USDP. USDP is Paxos' own product (essentially the new name for PAX), while PYUSD is issued in partnership with PayPal.

But here is what Paxos currently says about redeeming these tokens for dollars on its website.

It is almost the same message as before - except that it is now explicitly framed as a service for institutional clients only. If you are an individual holder of Paxos-issued tokens, redemption for US dollars is no longer offered to you.

In my view, this removes the single most important advantage Paxos stablecoins once had. Yet I could not find any announcement about this change (I am not even sure when it happened), I see no public discussion, and no one seems particularly upset. It looks like this feature was never as important as one might have assumed.

Is it really the case that almost no one who moved their money into the crypto world plans to bring it back out again?