Paypal Expands Operation to Include Cryptocurrency Exchange

Paypal Holdings Inc, the world’s leading online payments solution, has finally expanded its operations to include cryptocurrency exchange following months of planning.

The company customers will now be able to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other crptocurrencies using the PayPal digital payment wallets.

PayPal move was after the company’s competitor, Square, expanded into cryptocurrency exchange space in 2018 and developed a wallet that support bitcoin transactions through its Cash app. However, PayPal took it a notch higher by developing wallet that support Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

The decision to venture into cryptocurrency exchange space would boost the attractiveness of the unregulated digital asset and further push it to the mainstream given the fact that PayPal present has 346 million active users accounts with 26 million merchants.

“The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly,” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement. “Our global reach, digital payments expertise, two-sided network, and rigorous security and compliance controls provide us with the opportunity, and the responsibility, to help facilitate the understanding, redemption and interoperability of these new instruments of exchange.”

Schulman says PayPal is “eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world” in supporting cryptocurrency.

Please note that PayPal users can only transact in cryptocurrency using fiat currency without ability to withdraw their purchased digital asset to a third party wallet or transfer from third party wallet into their PayPal powered wallet. Meaning PayPal users can only purchase PayPal cryptocurrencies and transact within the platform.