Why has PayPal been trying to get involved with cryptocurrencies lately?

Why has PayPal been trying to get involved with cryptocurrencies lately?

Like many other financial companies, PayPal has been researching cryptocurrency as a means of payment. After all, PayPal is a disruptor and one of the first Fintech companies that changed the payments landscape.

The history of PayPal cryptocurrency support

On October 21st, 2020, PayPal launched a new service enabling customers to buy and sell cryptocurrency. They started with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin connected directly with PayPal’s digital wallet.

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The service available at the start for US residents expanded to Checkout with Crypto, which allows checkout using cryptocurrency at thousands of online businesses that support the platform. In 2021, PayPal expanded its crypto services to the UK and started the plan for more expansion globally.

Changing the PayPal payment methods

In most cases, PayPal as a payment method charges your connected card, or you can use funds from your account. However, adding cryptocurrency, the outlook of financial transactions could change.

Who are the users of PayPal services in the business world? For example, artists and websites can receive donations or sell products online via the platform. Even online fashion shops and other e-commerce companies often accept PayPal payments. And also the iGaming market accepts PayPal among their payment methods; certainly, a PayPal casino in Canada is not hard to find. Gamers and other users appreciate how convenient the use of PayPal as a payment method is – one reason being, that so many platforms accept it.

So it will be interesting to see how the shift towards crypto will change the partnerships.

Blockchain technology underneath the digital coins is incredibly secure. Still, cryptocurrency value is highly volatile, and it is one of the main reasons behind slow adoption as a mainstream payment method.

Issuing a PayPal coin?

After a huge push to integrate cryptocurrency into the PayPal ecosystem, one leak from the company iPhone app recently revealed that the company is looking to launch its own digital coin.

PayPal Coin would be a stablecoin, or cryptocurrency backed by the value of the existing currency, probably in this case the American dollar. The company issued several statements after the internal info became public. First, they said information on their stable coin originated from the internal hackathon.

Product logo, name and marketing approach can change before hitting the market, but there is no denying PayPal is aggressively pursuing digital currencies based on blockchain.

As a financial first mover, PayPal recognized how much cryptocurrencies changed the economic landscape. People use crypto as money for payments, but they also approach it as an asset.

One dollar will be enough if you want to invest in crypto stakes through PayPal. However, for now, you can hold cryptocurrency in a PayPal account only if you acquired it through their platform, and there is no way to import it from your other wallets.

Before launching a new digital currency, the company seeks clear answers from regulatory bodies and frameworks.

Several other platforms also explored digital coins. For example, meta, the parent company of Facebook, actively works on Metaverse, and cryptocurrency is perhaps the ideal means of payment within the virtual 3D world where you can buy digital assets. In addition, credit card company Visa also created a stablecoin connected to US dollars.

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