Paypal Launches Crypto Service: CEO Reveals Increased Limits, Expansion Plans, Venmo Launch

Payment giant Paypal has revealed more details about its new cryptocurrency service. The company is currently rolling out cryptographic capabilities for US customers, after which it will launch the service internationally and on the Venmo platform.

Paypal CEO Unveils Crypto Plans

Paypal CEO Dan Schulman provided new details about the company’s new cryptocurrency service during the third quarter 2020 earnings call on Monday. Paypal recently announced that its customers will be able to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, directly from their Paypal accounts. Cryptocurrencies in Paypal accounts can also be used to pay for purchases in 28 million stores around the world.

“Clearly the world is rapidly moving from physical to digital and this is true of payments and financial services,” Schulman said. He added that, based on his conversations with central banks and people in the cryptocurrency industry, “there is no doubt that digital currencies will become more and more important, with increasing functionality and increasing importance.” The CEO also believes central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) “are a question of when and how they are made, not if”.

He says Paypal, with its digital wallets and the scale it currently has, “can help shape the usefulness of those currencies.” The CEO said: “I think our platform and the new digital infrastructure we are putting in place right now can help make the management and movement of money more efficient, cheaper and faster.”

Regarding Paypal’s recently announced encryption service, the CEO said: “Our base is very eager to offer these features. It really was at the top of their wish list. “He further revealed:

We only distributed it to 10% of our base. We did it a couple of days ago. But our waiting list is 2 to 3 times our expectations. We are going to bring our $ 10,000 per day limit to $ 15,000 per day based on the demand we are seeing.

“We will reach 100% in the US in the next two to three weeks. Then we will expand internationally and expand into Venmo in the first half of next year,” he continued. “This is what we start with.”

Additionally, the CEO said Paypal is already “seeing people who have already bought cryptocurrency” on its platform, noting that some users “have opened their wallets several times a day to check what’s going on with their cryptocurrency investments. . We’re already starting to see some halo effects that go along with that. “

Schulman, who previously revealed he owns bitcoin, elaborated:

But what I am really excited about is what we will introduce next year, which I think will greatly increase the usefulness of cryptocurrencies by allowing someone who holds a cryptocurrency in a Paypal account to instantly transfer that cryptocurrency into fiat currency.

He explained that no additional integration is needed for the 28 million merchants and cryptocurrency transactions are “immediately settled in fiat”, adding that this method is “a low-cost funding mechanism” for Paypal.

In conclusion, Schulman said that in addition to the plans described above, “Over the next year, you will see us move to a couple of different areas,” noting that he sees “a lot of cool things” that Paypal can do with cryptocurrencies. The CEO stressed that his company is “working side by side with regulators every step of the way, which is so important in what they expect of us to be a market leader in the digital currency space.”

What do you think of Paypal’s crypto plan? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons