Payments Giant PayPal To Facilitate Crypto Trading Through Built-In Wallet As Per Sources

In one of the massive developments in the crypto space, global payments giant PayPal is all set to direct sales facility of digital currency for its over 300 million users across the globe.

So far, PayPal has served as an alternate means of getting payments from crypto exchanges like Coinbase. However, for the first time, PayPal is going to offer direct purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies, as per three people familiar with the matter.

Currently, there’s no clarity on how many cryptocurrencies will PayPal support. But the sources think that PayPal will be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity. Another source also confirmed that PayPal’s indigenous crypto trading service could go live in less than three months from now.

The sources have also named Luxembourg-based Bitstamp and San Francisco-based Coinbase crypto exchanges as likely partners for this project. However, neither of the three companies named have given any comment on this news break.

If not directly, PayPal has been indirectly associated with the crypto world as early as 2016. Two years back in 2018, Coinbase made instant payment withdrawals possible to PayPal, for U.S. customers. This service was later expanded to European Coinbase customers last year and further to Canada.

It looks like with major financial companies leaning towards crypto, PayPal is also set to take a shot at it. In early 2020, PayPal introduced more job openings for its Blockchain Research Group.

PayPal Chief Technology Officer Sri Shivananda said that his company wanted its own “perspective and view on blockchain technology itself to see how it can help us contribute to the concept of creating an open digital payments platform that can serve everyone. “We are a strong believer in the potential of blockchain. The digitization of currency is only a matter of when not if,” he added.

Last year, PayPal who was earlier part of Facebook’s Libra Project decided to step back citing many regulatory hurdles. It looks as the FinTech giant has decided to carve its own path.

If PayPal actually comes with its crypto trading service, it will have to compete with some already existing players like Jack Dorsey owned FinTech payments app Square and the London-based Revolut.