Digital payment giant PayPal sees a future for crypto and adds new possibilities for users of the app. From now on, it is possible to send crypto from PayPal to other wallets. PayPal decided to do this after it became clear that there is a lot of demand for this feature. At first, PayPal was criticized by the crypto community, because it was not possible to send crypto to their own wallets.
PayPal goes after Revolut
PayPal is not the first from the traditional financial industry to add this feature to their platform. With the decision to make it possible for users to send crypto to an external wallet, it is following in the footsteps of neo-bank Revolut. Revolut already opened this possibility for its users in May of last year. In that respect, PayPal is late in adding this option, but measured over the entire traditional financial industry, they are a forerunner.
“Adding the ability to send and receive crypto is another. Step into our journey to build a more inclusive and effective financial system,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, the head of blockchain, crypto and digital currency at PayPal. “We are hugely excited about connecting PayPal users to other wallets, exchanges and applications with this, and we will continue to add additional features, products and services in the months ahead,” Fernandez da Ponte continued.
PayPal investigates possibilities for its own stablecoin
That’s not all. Earlier this year, PayPal confirmed that it is researching its own US dollar-backed stablecoin. Bloomberg also reported that there is code in PayPal’s iOS app that talks about a so-called “PayPal Coin” with its very own logo. However, a representative of the company at the time said that this was a product of an internal hackathon.
“We are looking into a stablecoin and if we decide to go ahead with it, we will of course work closely with the relevant regulators,” Fernandez da Ponte said of PayPal’s ambitions. A stablecoin from a trusted party would certainly not be a bad addition for the industry after the Terra debacle.
Crypto plays key role in PayPal growth plan
During PayPal’s most recent quarterly earnings presentation, CEO Dan Schulman confirmed that crypto plays a key role in the company’s future plans. So much so that Schulman even talked about a key role in PayPal’s future. “We need to invest fully in the development of the digital wallet,” the PayPal CEO said during his speech. According to Schulman, this is where the future of his industry lies, and therefore also the future of PayPal.
Schulman shared during the presentation of the figures that more than 50 percent of the users of PayPal also use the digital wallet. Customers who use the digital wallet do 25 percent more transactions on average than other customers. It is also interesting that 70 percent of the buy-now-pay-later users did so via the company’s digital wallet. We can therefore very likely expect a lot from PayPal in the field of crypto.
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