Currently, Paypal can be used as an optional channel for the withdrawal of funds from exchanges like Coinbase, however this would be a first as regards offering direct sales of cryptocurrency
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According to CoinDesk, a well-place industry source offered his opinion. He said: “My understanding is that they are going to allow buys and sells of crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo.” Further commenting on the matter, he added that “They are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
The details of which or how much quantity of cryptocurrency to be available are still unclear. The industry source revealed that they expected PayPal would be collaborating with several exchanges to source liquidity.
Subsequently, another source affirmed that PayPal is looking to offer trading of crypto (buying and selling) and said the service could be launched within the next three months or less.
Although, PayPal has declined to issue a statement on the plans
San Francisco-based crypto trade Coinbase and Luxembourg-based Bitstamp were referenced as likely contenders by the sources. Both Coinbase and Bitstamp declined to remark.
It’s important to note that PayPal has an already established relationship with Coinbase, dating back as early as 2016. In 2018, Coinbase made instant fiat withdrawals to PayPal accessible for U.S. clients. Last year, European Coinbase clients could withdraw to their PayPal accounts, followed by Canadian clients.
Elsewhere, fintech applications that offer crypto are earning money. Square, the installments unicorn propelled by Twitter Chief Jack Dorsey, turned out bitcoin buys in its Cash App in mid-2018. Cash App registered $306 million in bitcoin income in its latest profit report.
London-based Revolut, which started offering crypto to clients following a 2017 alliance with Bitstamp, raised $500 million in February, rating the platform at $5.5 billion. Robinhood, the fintech application thought to driving the latest retail boom in equities day trading, first offered crypto in February 2018.
Crypto is increasingly perceived as an obvious means to boost client numbers on fintech applications and generate new income streams. Indeed, Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal has reinforced his plan this year is to aggressively monetize Venmo, which has more than 52 million accounts.
Recruitment push
Some tine at the start of 2020, PayPal posted job openings to upgrade its new Blockchain Research Group. PayPal posted eight engineering positions: four in San Jose and four in Singapore.
bitcoin exchange with paypal
Following PayPal’s brief dalliance with the Facebook-led Libra project a year ago, the attention currently is extending its payment expertise, according to one of the sources.
In a meeting with CoinDesk early in the year, the Chief Technology Officer of PayPal, Sri Shivananda said the company needed its own “perspective and view on [block chain] technology itself to see how it can help us contribute to the concept of creating an open digital payments platform that can serve everyone.”
Shivananda said he couldn’t comment on any of the Fintech giant’s specific plans.
“We are a strong believer in the potential of blockchain. The digitization of currency is only a matter of when not if,” Shivananda stated.