Joining the likes of Revolut and Robinhood, payment giants PayPal look to become the next big name to introduce the option for all users to withdraw their cryptocurrency assets to third-party wallets.
This will come as no big surprise to many after the California-based company opened its platform up to the blockchain revolution, allowing for cryptocurrencies to be bought and stored on the PayPal site back in October 2020.
Plans revealed at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 Conference
PayPal’s blockchain lead, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, spoke openly on Wednesday about the future plans to incorporate and facilitate the ability for its users to buy, sell and move cryptocurrency between themselves and third-party wallets.
“We want to make it as open as possible, and we want to give a choice to our consumers, something that will let them pay in any way they want to pay,” da Ponte explained.
The addition of a withdrawal option would further cement the legitimacy of crypto as a legal and secure method of payment, allowing for investors to use Bitcoin for everyday purchases.
Da Ponte added, “They want to bring their crypto to us so they can use it in commerce, and we want them to be able to take the crypto they acquired with us and take it to the destination of their choice.”
Despite no specified timeline for the introduction of crypto withdrawal, PayPal ships new developments roughly every two months.
Can we expect to see a PayPal coin?
Since the initial implementation of cryptocurrencies on the PayPal platform, the financial rumor mill has been on overdrive with suggestions that PayPal plans to release its own coin. Any theories on this were knocked back by da Ponte on Wednesday, who explained it was “way too early” to be considered, although he did not deny that it may be in development.
The PayPal vice-president has also been in communication with central bankers around the world to discuss the who, what, when, how, and why it is time to consider introducing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
“It absolutely makes sense that central banks will issue their own tokens,” da Ponta stated, after expressing how he could see plenty of opportunities to achieve stability with digital currencies and confirmed he believes both stablecoins and CBDCs are likely to co-exist.
Crypto to enhance access to the financial system
There is no dispute that digital currencies could help expand access to the financial system on a global scale, not just here in the US. With some states having no physical branches, it makes sense for the inevitable distribution of CBDCs to ensure everyone has access to the same financial markets.
Da Ponte expressed his concerns with the current banking methods, using the difficulty of those who had to travel to a physical bank during the pandemic to cash their stimulus checks as a great example – “I think we can do better than that,” he said.
