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A significant level of excitement has enveloped the cryptocurrency market especially with respect to Bitcoin. PayPal has entered the crypto sector and its customers will now be able to use cryptocurrencies to shop at any merchant location in its large network starting from 2021. The payments will be apparently settled through fiat currencies quite on the lines of many existing crypto merchant solutions like BitPay. This means that the merchants will be receiving fiat and the conversion will be taken care of by PayPal.
The coins that will be initially supported will include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC), the company said. It has partnered with Paxos to deliver the service and has obtained a conditional cryptocurrency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, also known as the BitLicense.
Ever since PayPal has announced its venturing into the industry, there have been cheers especially when it also has involved Bitcoin. The launch of its new crypto services will allow both crypto payments as well as direct in-app purchases of crypto. The official launch is set at 2021, yet yesterday, the Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire has claimed that he used PayPal to buy $100 worth of Bitcoin and has also tweeted the transaction snapshot.
Allaire has not clarified how he had used the service before the official rollout. He also did not clarify whether he has any arrangement with PayPal to use and advertise the service. PayPal also has not responded to the tweet as well as the floating news of the use of the service. As we have already mentioned, it has for now picked a set of 4 cryptocurrencies for the service and the transactions will be initiated in crypto will be settled with the affiliated merchants in local fiat currency.
Source: Twitter
Many users have also replied to his tweet in varied manners. Some found it hard to believe, others were clueless.
Source: Twitter
PayPal has huge active user traffic who can enjoy the service. As of Q2 2020, PayPal has more than 346 million active user accounts and has already processed $222 billion in volume. Crypto payments also will be supported by its 26 million merchants around the globe as of 2021.
PayPal is one of the largest global payment providers and was also one of the initial founding members of the Libra association. But later it dropped out of the project because the project was stuck under regulations and could not be passed further.
By endowing its users the ability to buy, sell, and use cryptocurrency through PayPal it can be said that it’s just the first step. The CEO of PayPal said that this shift to digital currency was on the cards and inevitable. He also said that he wants PayPal to contribute positively to shaping the role of digital currencies which will call the shots in the future of global finance and commerce. PayPal has also been picking pace with the introduction of new products and features to accentuate its growth.