Paypal seems to move on in the crypto sector. After buying Curv, an Israeli crypto custody firm, it is about to announce that it has started allowing U.S. consumers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to pay millions of its online merchants globally. This step could significantly boost the use of digital assets, especially in everyday commerce.
Paypal said that customers who hold bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin in PayPal digital wallets will now be able to convert their holdings into fiat currencies at checkouts to make their purchases. The service will be available at all of its 29 million merchants in the coming months. Checkout with Crypto builds on PayPal users’ ability to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies.
Dan Schulman, the president and CEO of Paypal, said:
“This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet.”
The offering made PayPal one of the largest mainstream financial companies to open its network to cryptocurrencies and fuel a rally in virtual coin prices.
Bitcoin has nearly doubled in value since the beginning of this year, supported by increased interest from larger financial firms. PayPal’s launch comes a few days after Tesla Inc announced it would start accepting bitcoin payments for its cars. Unlike PayPal, Tesla claimed it would hold the bitcoin used as payment.
Schulman said:
“We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants.”
Checkout with Crypto will appear for a customer to select as a payment method if they have sufficient cryptocurrency of a single type held in their PayPal wallet to cover the purchase price. Paypal will not charge any transaction fee to checkout with crypto, and only one type of coin can be used for each purchase.
Source: www.reuters.com
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