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Pay Pal has launched Checkout With Crypto, a cryptocurrency service for merchants across the United States, and will roll it out over the next few months.
“This is the first time that you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or debit card in your PayPal wallet,” said PayPal CEO Dan Schulman. Reuters.
The Checkout With Crypto service will allow those who hold cryptocurrencies on the platform to spend them with all PayPal merchants. Supported cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin; the payment company will however convert the cryptocurrency into fiat currency for the actual payment.
“We believe this is a transition point where cryptocurrencies move from being an asset class primarily that you buy, hold and / or sell to becoming a legitimate source of funding for real-world transactions at millions of traders, ”added Schulman.
PayPal’s move comes just a week after Tesla accepted Bitcoin as a payment method for its cars – and shortly after Tesla invested $ 1.5 billion in Bitcoin itself.
The adoption of Bitcoin by PayPal
PayPal initially announced that it would allow users to buy and hold cryptocurrencies on the platform in October 2020. At the time, Schulman said in a statement that “the shift to digital forms of currencies is underway. inevitable ”and that the company was“ thinking ”of all forms of digital currencies and how PayPal can play a role. “
The company has partnered with Paxo Crypto Brokerage to create its crypto-centric payment service, with Paxos providing crypto custody and trading functionality for the platform.
PayPal’s adoption of crypto marked a significant about-face for the company, which had historically avoided cryptocurrency. The news sparked a crypto bull run that was seen The price of Bitcoin go from less than $ 12,000 at the time of the advertisement to its current price of nearly $ 60,000.
However, not all cryptocurrency advocates were wholeheartedly in favor of PayPal’s switch to crypto; the terms and conditions of the platform state that “the crypto in your account cannot be transferred to other accounts on or outside of PayPal, “prompting some to argue that PayPal ignores the” fundamentals “of cryptocurrency.
PayPal plans to expand its crypto offering beyond the United States in 2021, noting in February that it plans to expand its crypto offering to the United Kingdom in “a number of months.”
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