PayPal has announced that it will start allowing customers to hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. US users will get the ability to do so over the coming weeks, while other countries will have to wait until the first half of 2021.
Reuters reports that the ability to make payments with them will only come early next year. Within the same time window, this will also be expanded to its payment app Venmo. It will initially support the purchase of bitcoin, etherium, bitcoin cash and litecoin.
The adoption of cryptocurrencies by PayPal may probably help them gain wider adoption. In a way, it will also be managing the risk of price fluctuations for merchants and consumers, according to the report.
But it’s still a little strange that the company will dabble in this. After all, it pulled out support from Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency. It was also a founding member of the Libra Association too, which made it all the more peculiar.
But for its own efforts, PayPal will be working with Paxos Trust Company, a cryptocurrency firm, for the service it is offering. It has also secured the first conditional cryptocurrency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services.
(Source: Reuters)
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