PayPal Users Can Now Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency

PayPal has officially expanded its new service enabling users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency.

PayPal announced in October that it was moving to support cryptocurrency, although it was only available to a limited number of users at the time. PayPal has now expanded the service to all eligible users, supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin within the PayPal digital wallet.

When PayPal first made their announcement in October, it sparked a BitCoin rally that helped drive the cryptocurrency above $15,000. Today’s news will likely continue to drive the price up.

“The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly,” said Dan Schulman, president and CEO, PayPal. “Our global reach, digital payments expertise, two-sided network, and rigorous security and compliance controls provide us with the opportunity, and the responsibility, to help facilitate the understanding, redemption and interoperability of these new instruments of exchange. We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”

As part of the news, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted PayPal a first-of-its-kind conditional Bitlicense.

“NYDFS’ approval today follows our June 2020 announcement for a new framework for a conditional Bitlicense to encourage, promote, and assist interested institutions to have a well-regulated way to access the New York virtual currency marketplace in a way that is both timely and protective of New York consumers, through partnerships with New York authorized virtual currency firms,” said Linda A. Lacewell, superintendent, NYDFS. “NYDFS will continue to encourage and support financial service providers to operate, grow, remain and expand in New York and work with innovators to enable them to germinate and test their ideas, for a dynamic and forward looking financial services sector, especially as we work to build New York back better in the midst of this pandemic.”

The announcement is good news for PayPal, its customers and cryptocurrency adoption.