PayPal Holdings stock (PYPL) continued to fall Wednesday, dipping more than 2% in a decline that added onto Tuesday’s 20% slide precipitated by disappointing earnings and guidance and a dramatic change of chief executive.
Today’s move also comes after a lengthy post on social-media network X from former PayPal President David Marcus criticizing the company’s path since he left.
Notably, finishing Wednesday in the red would mark the ninth straight session of decline for PayPal, which last finished trading with a gain on Jan. 22. Since then, the stock has fallen nearly 29%.
Marcus—now CEO and founder of payments company Lightspark, which has some competitive interfaces with PayPal—said that he’d been silent after departing PayPal for Facebook 12 years ago (amid “deep frustration”), but that messages from colleagues about Tuesday’s earnings pushed him to speak, saying “the pattern I’ve watched unfold isn’t self-correcting.”
“I’m not claiming I would have made every call differently. Running a public company at scale involves tradeoffs I didn’t have to make after I left. But the pattern, choosing predictability over platform risk, again and again, was a choice, not an inevitability,” he said on X.
“Over time, the company that had every advantage and could’ve become the most consequential and relevant payments company of our time lost its mojo, its product edge, and its ability to compete in a market that’s being rewired and reinvented in front of our eyes,” he continued.
“That’s the part that’s hardest to watch for a company I care so deeply about.”
In his lengthy post, Marcus highlighted what he saw as major problems over the years, including PayPal losing its ability to steer customers toward bank-funded transactions, and eroding share of checkout among its most profitable customers, with “the same pattern” repeating across lending, buy now/pay later, and new transaction rails.
He also weighed in on company leadership, saying departing CEO Alex Chriss “came from software, not payments” and “didn’t have the muscle memory for transaction economics, network effects, or settlement infrastructure,” and that new CEO Enrique Lores “might be a great leader, but on paper at least, he’s a hardware executive. For a payments company.”
In a post welcoming Lores, PayPal (PYPL) said “His appointment by our Board reflects a clear commitment to strengthening our execution, innovation, and performance. He previously served on our Board for nearly five years and as Board Chair since July 2024,” and said the company was “positioned well for 2026 and beyond.”
PayPal stock (PYPL) has fallen more than 86% from its all-time high in 2021, after outperforming in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.