Weeks after it announced customers could begin to use cryptocurrencies for payment, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) has added the ability to buy and sell four popular cryptocurrencies on its Venmo app.
Crypto on Venmo will also include cryptocurrency trends and access to in-app guides and videos to help answer commonly asked questions about cryptocurrencies. Customers using crypto on Venmo can choose from four types of cryptocurrency: Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Ethereum (ETH-USD), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-USD) and Litecoin (LTC-USD).
“Crypto on Venmo is a new way for the Venmo community to start exploring the world of crypto, within the Venmo environment they trust and rely on as a key component of their everyday financial lives,” said Darrell Esch, senior vice president and general manager of Venmo, which is a subsidiary of PayPal. “No matter where you are in your cryptocurrency journey, crypto on Venmo will help our community to learn and explore cryptocurrencies on a trusted platform and directly in the app they know and love. Our goal is to provide our customers with an easy-to-use platform that simplifies the process of buying and selling cryptocurrencies and demystifies some of the common questions and misconceptions that consumers may have.”
Venmo customers can buy cryptocurrencies for as little as $1 using either available balance in their Venmo accounts or through a linked bank account or debit card. Customers can also share their crypto journey on the Venmo feed for other Venmo customers to see and learn from.
Paxos Trust Company, a regulated provider of cryptocurrency products and services, is providing support to enable crypto on Venmo. PayPal has also been granted a first-of-its-kind conditional BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), it said.
In a 2020 survey of Venmo customers, PayPal found that 30% had already started purchasing cryptocurrencies or crypto equities.
In March, PayPal introduced Checkout with Crypto, an offering that enables PayPal Wallet holders of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to use that currency at checkout and PayPal will automatically convert the payment to U.S. dollars with no additional integrations or fees for businesses. Transactions in other currencies will be settled based on PayPal conversion rates, the company said.
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“Until now, offering cryptocurrency as a payment type has been challenging for businesses – from integration requirements, technical barriers and general lack of awareness among consumers,” Jim Magats, senior vice president of omni payments for PayPal, explained in a blog post. “Checkout with Crypto allows businesses to accept the proceeds from sales of cryptocurrency as a payment type, all within the current PayPal integration, removing the need for any additional action for businesses.”
Also in March, PayPal acquired Curv, a provider of cloud-based infrastructure for digital asset securities such as cryptocurrencies.
The payment provider first announced in November 2020 that U.S. account holders could buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in their PayPal wallets, with a weekly purchase limit of $20,000.
Click for more Modern Shipper articles by Brian Straight.
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