Good morning, folks. In an interview with the crypto focused online magazine Decrypt, PayPal’s CEO spoke about the company’s plans to set up a new business unit focused solely on cryptocurrency & digital assets:
Today with PayPal’s app, people in the US can “buy, sell and hold” bitcoin & some other cryptocurrencies. In Feb, PayPal confirmed it is expanding these to the UK. That opens up easy crypto ownership to millions of people. The idea, according to PayPal’s CEO, is to open this up “to its over 350 million users in the first half of 2021.”
And PayPal “will soon expand beyond buy, sell, hold”:
On its Investors day, PayPal said the existing financial system is outdated, and that it will be investing a lot of money into blockchain and digital currencies.
PayPal’s crypto unit is experimenting with smart contracts, and testing Ethereum and other blockchains as potential candidates to help the company improve payments and other transactions.
Finally, tapping into the momentum around crypto has been good for PayPal. Here is its 5-year stock price chart. See 2020 and later:
