PayPal Holdings, Inc. recently announced that it is expanding its cryptocurrency offering to US merchants, allowing business accounts to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal business accounts.
This new feature will be available to millions of merchants across the US, though it won’t be available to business accounts in New York State at launch.
“Since introducing the ability for PayPal and Venmo consumers to buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrency in their wallets, we’ve learned a lot about how they want to spend their cryptocurrency,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Finance. Digital on PayPal. “Business owners have continued to express a desire for the same cryptocurrency power available to consumers. We are excited to meet that need by bringing this new offering, empowering them to use digital currencies with ease.”
In addition to buying, holding, and selling cryptocurrency, US merchants can now transfer cryptocurrency abroad. This new feature enables PayPal business account holders to send and receive supported cryptocurrency tokens to and from eligible third-party wallets via blockchain addresses.
PayPal’s Growing Cryptocurrency Capabilities
This latest development is part of PayPal’s ongoing efforts to expand the use of cryptocurrency for its users.
In 2020, PayPal enabled its customers to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies through their PayPal and Venmo accounts. In 2023, PayPal launched a US dollar stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), strengthening its presence in the digital currency space.
Earlier this year, PayPal allowed PYUSD to be used as a financing tool for its Xoom platform, which provides low-cost transactions for eligible transfers to friends and family abroad.
Recently, PYUSD was made available on the Solana blockchain, giving users improved flexibility and control by offering a choice of multiple blockchains.
