PayPal Holdings now allows merchants in the United States, except in New York state, to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly through their PayPal business accounts.
PayPal Holdings said in a press release on Wednesday (September 25) that the company has also enabled PayPal business account holders to send and receive supported cryptocurrency tokens to and from external blockchain accounts.
The addition of these features for business account holders follows the 2020 announcement that consumers could buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal and Venmo accounts, according to the release.
“Business owners are increasingly asking for the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers,” José Fernández da Ponte, PayPal’s senior vice president of blockchain, crypto and digital currency, said in the release. “We’re pleased to meet that demand by offering this new service and making it easier for consumers to engage with digital currency.”
When PayPal announced in October 2020 that it was entering the cryptocurrency business by allowing consumers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, it said it aimed to help shape the role that digital currencies play.
“The transition to digital currency is inevitable. It offers clear benefits in financial inclusion and access; the efficiency, speed and resilience of payments systems; and the ability of governments to quickly distribute funds to their citizens,” Dan Schulman, PayPal’s president and CEO, said at the time.
“We look forward to working with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support and contribute meaningfully to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”
PayPal said it will introduce a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), in August 2023, which will allow customers to select PayPal USD at checkout to fund their purchases and exchange any PayPal-supported cryptocurrency into or from PayPal USD.
The company announced in May that PayPal USD was now available on the Solana blockchain. PayPal said that Solana is the most widely used blockchain for stablecoin transfers, and that offering PayPal USD there makes it faster and cheaper to spend stablecoins while giving users multiple blockchain options for greater flexibility and control.
