PayPal enters crypto market, speeding up mainstream adoption

Crypto continues to move in mainstream finance as big firms adopt and integrate it into their systems. The latest tech giant to enter the crypto market is PayPal after it announced the launch of a new service that supports digital assets.

In a press release published on October 21, 2020, PayPal made their newest feature public in line with the shift of virtual coins and payments during the COVID-19 pandemic. The feature allows users to buy, hold, and sell crypto straight from their PayPal account.

‘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’, PayPal CEO and president Dan Schulman said.

‘We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce’.

Their service now includes crypto support for tokens and altcoins such as Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ether (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC). These virtual assets can also be stored straight within the platform’s digital wallet.

On the other hand, features such as crypto deposits and withdrawals are still in the works. Be that as it may, PayPal users can convert their virtual coin to fiat money with no added fees by early 2021.

PayPal was granted a license to offer its crypto service in the form of a limited permit called ‘Bitlicense’. It is the first licence of its kind issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). With this permit, the payment service leader is also required to work with the Paxos Trust Company, an existing crypto provider based in the US.

According to Superintendent of Financial Services Linda A. Lacewell, Bitlicense is issued to encourage, promote, and assist interested groups to have a well-regulated system to enter the virtual asset market in New York State.

‘DFS will continue to encourage and support financial service providers to operate, grow, remain and expand in New York and work with innovators to enable them to germinate and test their ideas, for a dynamic and forward-looking financial services sector, especially as we work to build New York back better in the midst of this pandemic’, Lacewell further stated.

Since 2015, DFS has allowed 26 firms to engage in the virtual asset business in the US state. Other payment groups that joined the crypto bandwagon are Square’s Cash app and Revolut.

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