PayPal Looks to Crypto Markets

Around 20% of PayPal users have been trading cryptocurrencies using the PayPal app. This figure was obtained by Mizuho Securities the past week and involved a survey of 380 PayPal users and their daily trading habits. Last month saw the worldwide payments system introduce support for purchases using Bitcoin but only in the United States. Many users have begun using the cryptocurrency to pay for goods and services within the PayPal app. Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal has been a firm supporter of adopting cryptocurrencies as a payment system, stating that “when you start to move crypto as a potential funding instrument… that bolsters its utility, and stabilizes it as well.”

An Entirely New Market

With the added support of being able to trade Bitcoin within the PayPal app, doors will be opened to an entirely untapped market of traders, those who are not so technologically able. PayPal has certainly made the concept of online financial transactions a breeze for both businesses and private users. To trade Bitcoin has never been easier and can be done from just about any supported device. Users are now able to spend their cryptocurrency at an enormous 26 million merchants supported by PayPal, this bolsters the advance of Bitcoin to becoming a serious consideration among traditional currencies.

PayPal has also announced recently that there is a serious move towards supporting payments with all cryptocurrencies, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin are all in the works for users in the U.S. After this announcement, PayPal has confirmed an alarming increase in the rate at which customers are signing up for the service. They have taken a minimalistic approach towards the introduction of cryptocurrencies as there are an enormous amount of regulatory hurdles to overcome. The world of crypto trading has always been incredibly volatile and this may cause uncertainty among consumers.

One drawback of the PayPal crypto service is that you are unable to transfer any of your cryptocurrency to another wallet. This is fairly unique for an ewallet and can only be due to the regulations in place to limit the trading of cryptocurrencies. With the addition of trading smaller crypto markets, it can only be assumed that the regulation will eventually be eased to allow users more freedom.

PayPal CEO on why the company is getting into cryptocurrency