PayPal will now allow all users in the United States to buy and sell cryptocurrency

PayPal will now allow all users in the United States to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal account. The news came in an update to a press release last month announcing that the new feature was on the way (via TechCrunch).

I see the functionality available in the PayPal app. For me, there is a banner on the ability to buy cryptocurrency at the top of the main screen, and if I tap it I can choose to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

PayPal’s support for cryptocurrency is an important vote of confidence in digital currencies and may encourage everyday users to embrace them. However, PayPal isn’t the first fintech company to support cryptocurrency; Square’s Cash app added support for Bitcoin in 2018, for example.

PayPal plans to expand cryptocurrency functionality to Venmo and “select international markets” in the first half of next year. And in early 2021, PayPal plans to let you pay PayPal merchants with cryptocurrency.