Cryptocurrency has posed serious competition to PayPal since its debut into the global finance scene. This is especially because the asset class significantly reduces the transaction charges that are inherent with traditional payments processors like Paypal, Payoneer, Amazon Pay, and the like.
Well, it appears that PayPal is paying regard to the old maxim: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” According to a recent report by leading cryptocurrency news outlet CoinDesk, the payments firm is set to introduce a cryptocurrency buying and selling service.
PayPal’s Strategy To Allow Crypto Buying And Selling
Per the report, a person familiar with the matter revealed that PayPal and Venmo (PayPal’s peer-to-peer payment platform), are planning to allow individuals and/or businesses to buy and sell cryptocurrency directly from the platforms. The source notes that they will introduce “some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
The source also notes that PayPal will rely on several exchanges as liquidity providers for the transactions. However, it is not clear which specific cryptocurrencies the firm will be offering to its users at this point.
A different source told the outlet that PayPal plans to launch this cryptocurrency buying and selling service over the next three months —or even sooner than that.
It bears mentioning that PayPal recently hired a blockchain and AML strategy director, according to a job posting in March 2020. The blockchain strategy director is responsible for leading the firm’s market expansion efforts and identifying partnerships and opportunities that are blockchain-related.
Although PayPal did not officially confirm hiring the blockchain strategist, the job advertisement suggests that the firm has already completed the hiring process. However, it’s unclear whether the newly hired director is part of the new cryptocurrency buying/selling venture.
Big Boost To Crypto Mass Adoption
The reason why this is such a big deal for crypto is the fact that both PayPal and Venmo boast a customer base of nearly 400 million. This means that offering a crypto-oriented service will expose Bitcoin to the millions of users; subsequently bringing the mass adoption dream closer to reality.
Additionally, it is worth pointing out that this is not the first time PayPal has expressed keen interest in digital currencies and blockchain technology. The firm was one of the founding members of Facebook’s Libra Association that was announced in June 2019 but pulled out of the ambitious digital currency project last October.
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