Paypal: Direct purchase and sale of cryptocurrency soon?
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Paypal: 305 million users and soon many more?
Online transactions are multiplying
A place for crypto and Blockchain engineers
Since Monday 22th June, a rumor is going around saying that Paypal will allow its 305 million users to buy directly crypto. It might not stay a rumor because you can see the job descriptions of the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency experts available on the site. On the other hand, online Bitcoin transactions are multiplying.
Paypal: 305 million users and soon many more?
Being a platform for online payments, Paypal allows buyers and sellers to send and receive money online. PayPal has more than 100 million accounts in 202 countries and regions of the world and has more than 300 million users. The fintech giant uses data encryption and anti-fraud technology to help its customers secure their information.
On the Blockchain and Cryptography side, PayPal’s first investment in this technology was in April 2019. The company was investigating how it could use a Blockchain platform to allow its users to prove who they are while preventing the unnecessary sharing of personal information. As a result, it joined a Series A investment in Cambridge Blockchain, a start-up that strives to give individuals a way to own their own identity online without the need for intermediaries such as Facebook, much like Bitcoin, which allows its users to store value without going through a bank.
You couldn’t miss the story of Paypal with Libra, from facebook. PayPal was one of the 28 funders of Facebook’s monetary cryptography project, and one of the first to withdraw from the association. It happened in October 2019 and PayPal explained in a release that:
“PayPal has made the decision to no longer participate in the Libra Association for the time being and to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations”.
Recently, in March 2020, PayPal has already recruited a Blockchain Strategy Director. Specifically, on March 23rd, digital payments giant PayPal posted a new job offer to recruit an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Blockchain Strategy Director for its Global Financial Crimes (GFC) division.
About three months later, the platform decided to allow these 300 million users to send and receive about 25 currencies and soon, plus Bitcoin and other cryptos, and of course, Bitcoin’s online transactions explode! A coïncidence maybe?
Online transactions are multiplying
It is not yet known which cryptocurrencies will be supported, but according to Coindesk sources, Paypal would probably include multiple different exchanges. Coinbase, as well as Luxembourg’s Bitstamp, are among the names considered likely to be involved, although neither has commented on the procedure. It also appears that the scheme could be deployed “within the next three months, perhaps sooner”. This industry source told coindesk:
“I understand they’re going to allow buying and selling crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo”; “They’re going to have some sort of built-in wallet feature so you can store it there”. It’s not clear what or how many crypto wallets would be available.
The source added that they expected PayPal to “work with several exchanges to find liquidity”.
In any case, it had an impact on the price of Bitcoin (BTC) which jumped more than 4% on June 22nd, the day the rumor started. The market went up on June 22nd, leading to green figures for all bitcoin and most altcoin. In addition, according to data from Glassnode, there was an alert indicating that the volume of transactions on the Bitcoin network had “significantly increased” in the last 24 hours after the rumour that PayPal might allow the direct buying and selling of cryptography.
A place for crypto and Blockchain engineers
With the appearance of two job offers, rumors began to take shape. On PayPal’s website, you can see two job postings: the first is for the position of “Technical Manager — Crypto Engineer” for a role described as “designing, developing and maintaining key cryptographic products aimed at the availability, performance and scalability of PayPal services”. The other for a Blockchain Research Engineer who will join Fintech’s research group on “Emerging blockchain technologies, performance and their potential uses within Paypal.
If the news is confirmed, as a competitor, Paypal will first have Square, which in its latest profit report reported $306 million in bitcoin revenues. Square is being launched by Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, who deployed Bitcoin purchases in his Cash application in mid-2018.
Then there’s also London-based Revolut, which began offering cryptocurrency to users following a partnership with Bitstamp in 2017, and which has already raised $500 million in February, valuing the platform at $5.5 billion.
To be continued…..
Written by Laetisia Harson, Project Manager at Magna Numeris
