Will PayPal’s Integration Bring Cryptocurrencies Into Reach? 

Recently, Paypal announced that its customers would be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. This has been one of the most discussed topics within the cryptocurrency community lately. The full implementation of this service become available early next year. 

The company’s goal to increase consumers understanding and adoption of cryptocurrency is a necessary step in the popularization of cryptocurrency. General awareness of cryptocurrency is still superficial. Moreover, as data from a Statista survey indicates, the use of BTC in countries with developed economies is below 10%, with the lowest levels in Sweden, Denmark and Japan. Meanwhile, some optimistically predict that this number will grow to 90% in the US population by 2030. 

PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman said that the shift to digital forms of currency is inevitable. It brings clear benefits in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payment system; and also the ability of governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly. Similarly, the former Prime Minister of Malta, Joseph Muscat, told the United Nations General Assembly in 2018 that cryptocurrencies were the inevitable future of money.

Paypal users have reached 361 million in the 3rd quarter

As a result, PayPal will begin offering its services to users with Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The company has acquired a conditional BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services. It’s a license required to operate a digital currency business in New York – and partnered with the US-based stablecoin operator Paxos to enable this service for its clients.

PayPal had 346 million active users in the second quarter of 2020. Since then, in the third quarter, the figure has increased to 361 million. The decision to offer its customers services related to cryptocurrencies appears to be a significant step towards mass adoption. 

Cristina Dolan, the founder and CEO of InsideChains, stated that Paypal’s recent announcement would help increase the adoption of crypto for transferring the value of regular payments by offering an easy and integrated solution for PayPal’s 346 million active users. The most challenging part of using PayPal Cryptocurrency for payments is the cryptocurrency on-ramp and off-ramp blockchain networks that use key pairs to make a payment or transfer. Reducing that friction at the point of transaction will facilitate its integration into value transfer. PayPal dominates payment processing, but the integration of crypto can also attract new customers.