On June 3rd of this year, Paypal posted a job opening for a Blockchain Research Engineer. The description calls for responsibilities like “Leading discovery for use cases that can further PayPal’s understanding of blockchain and specific blockchain implementations.”This information caused many to wonder if Paypal, and its payment application Venmo, would soon offer crypto payments and wallets.
In a recent article published by Coindesk, a “well-placed industry source” said this:
“My understanding is that they are going to allow buys and sells of crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo,” and that “they are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
The details of how cryptocurrency will be integrated into these platforms, including whether or not they will offer more than just Bitcoin, is still very much unknown. Coindesk’s source also said that Paypal “would be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity.”
This is not the first time that Paypal has dabbled with cryptocurrency. As far back as 2016 Paypal offered Coinbase users the ability to withdraw their fiat money to Paypal accounts. While Paypal has so far only had one foot in the door, all the while other fintech payments companies are making money in the crypto space, It seems Paypal now wants in.
Square, a payments solution and competitor to Paypal, gave its CashApp users the ability to purchase and store cryptocurrency as far back as 2018. Back in May of this year, CashApp reported quarterly revenue of over 300 million dollars from Bitcoin purchases and transactions.
While It seems Paypal may be interested in the space due to the potential profit to be made, the Bitcoin and wider cryptocurrency community are incredibly bullish on crypto prices following this news.
This year, Paypal hit the milestone of having over 300 million users. Similarly, Venmo’s growing user base can add a great deal more to the number of people that will now have the exposure and opportunity to invest in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
Influential members of the crypto community took to Twitter to express their feelings. Ivan Liljeqvist, founder of the Ivan On Tech Academy and tech educator, tweet this:
“2018 – PayPal CEO claims that Bitcoin is a scam
2020 – PayPal and Venmo to offer #Bitcoin purchases
Never listen to what people say – see what they do”
Ivan and other members of crypto-twitter noted how we have come full circle where we started with complete denial of the technology, to acceptance. Alex Saunders, another influential member of crypto-twitter, tweet this:
Slowly. Then all at once. No one wants to be first. Then no one wants to be last. So far this week:
- PayPal
- Venmo
- 7-Eleven
- CVS Pharmacies
- Rite Aid Pharmacies
- Australia Post
These comments from the community show how many companies in the past have started with an anti-Bitcoin stance, only to come around to integrating it into their systems eventually. While the price of Bitcoin seems to be unbothered by this news, this potential influx of users that will now have the option to purchase crypto makes a good case for increasing adoption, especially if more and more companies begin to follow in their footsteps.
Source: Investopedia
