PayPal Working on Crypto Withdrawal Service
- Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s vice president and general manager for blockchain and crypto, made the statement during Consensus 2021.
- The company currently allows its users to buy and sell cryptocurrency on its platform, but not to move it to third-party wallets.
PayPal sign in front of PayPal Holdings headquarters building in North San Jose Innovation District in Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, March 17, 2019. Shutterstock
PayPal users will soon have more control over their cryptocurrency, with the payment giant currently working to allow customers to withdraw their holdings to third-party wallets.
The announcement was made during the Consensus 2021 virtual conference by Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s vice president and general manager for blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies. The statement comes only seven months after the payments giant first allowed its customers to purchase cryptocurrency from its platform. da Ponte said during an interview:
“We want to make it as open as possible, and we want to give choice to our consumers, something that will let them pay in any way they want to pay. 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.”
While da Ponte did not suggest any official date for the launch of the new service, once released it will surely boost the number of users that use PayPal to enter the crypto space. Currently users are allowed to purchase cryptocurrency on PayPal, but are unable to transfer their digital assets to other platforms. The new feature will enable users to send their holdings to a wallet of their choice, instead of just holding it on PayPal, and selling it for fiat currencies.
PayPal began its expansion into crypto back in October 2020, when it partnered with crypto startup Paxos to enable its customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies directly through the application. Support for the service was later expanded to PayPal’s mobile payment services app Venmo. Back in March, the payments giant also added a new solution, “Checkout with Crypto”, which allowed its customers to use their digital assets as a form of payment at millions of online merchants.
- PayPal USD (PYUSD) will be issued by Paxos and the Ethereum blockchain, and is backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term Treasuries, and similar cash equivalents.
- The company said the stablecoin can be redeemed for U.S. dollars at all times, and exchanged for any other crypto supported by the platform, including BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC.
PayPal logo and sign in front of PayPal Holdings headquarters building in North San Jose Innovation District in Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, USA, 17 March, 2019. Michael Vi/Shutterstock
- The new funding will help Chaos Labs build out and expand its suit of risk and security products that can help DeFi protocols.
- The seed funding round was co-led by PayPal and Galaxy Digital, but also saw participation from including Coinbase Ventures, Polygon, Avalanche, OpenSea, Uniswap, and others.
- PayPal’s new app will provide a personalized view of the customers’ account balance, wallet, payments, and finances.
- The improved mobile application will bring a slew of features to its users, including direct deposits, bill pay, a digital wallet, crypto capabilities, and more.