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The NASDAQ-listed online payments giant PayPal will allow its customers to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto-actives for U.S. account holders in the coming weeks, Reuters reported, quoting President and CEO Dan Schulman.
Paypal wants to enable cryptocurrencies on Venmo, its mobile payment service that processed $12 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2018.
PayPal customers will also be able to use cryptocurrencies to make purchases at the 26 million merchants in its network beginning in early 2021, the article added.
PayPal hopes that this service will encourage the worldwide use of “virtual currencies” and prepare its network for new digital currencies that could be developed by central banks and companies.
“We are working with central banks and thinking about all forms of digital currencies and how PayPal can play a role,” said Dan Schulman.
Cryptocurrency payments on PayPal will be settled using fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, which means merchants will not receive payments in “virtual currencies,” the company said.
This is obviously a huge boost for the general public adoption of cryptocurrencies as Paypal has 346 million active accounts around the world and processed $222 billion in payments in the second quarter of 2020 alone.
If even 10% of Paypal users can use their account to dabble in cryptocurrency, this could add a very significant boost to the userbase of cryptos around the world.
This also is significant as many countries are announcing central digital currencies and Paypal would certainly enjoy cooperating and being central to the development process of this important economic opportunity.
As Reuters, who broke this story, notes: “PayPal, which has secured the first conditional cryptocurrency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services, will initially allow purchases of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies called ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin, it said. It partners with Paxos Trust Company to offer the service.”