A New Report Says We Could Soon Be Able to Buy and Sell Bitcoin Through PayPal and Venmo
In a recent report by CoinDesk, online payment global giants PayPal and Venmo are thinking of making the move into cryptocurrency.
Expert sources have told the media outlets that the move is coming and customers will be able to buy, sell, store, and send BTC in the future.
“My understanding is that they are going to allow buys and sells of crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo. They are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
The expert also stated that the quantity of cryptocurrencies that would be accessible is unclear at the moment. But PayPal and Venmo would be exploring the market with diligence and “would be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity.”
As per the report, the rumor was substantiated by several industry experts, and the companies could be looking for a very quick transition into the market. The expert posted that Crypto could be accessible through PayPal and Venmo “in the next three months, maybe sooner.”
Sri Shivananda Chief Technology Officer at PayPal said the company wanted its own “perspective and view on the technology (blockchain) itself to see how it can help us contribute to the concept of creating an open digital payments platform that can serve everyone.”
At the time Shivananda said he was unable to comment on any of PayPal’s particular plans for the future however he did allude to the potential of digital currencies.
Shivananda said “We are a strong believer in the potential of blockchain. The digitization of currency is only a matter of when not if.”
Regardless of whether the rumors are overstated, PayPal’s interest in the blockchain is evident. At the beginning of 2020, they started looking for blockchain engineers to fill 4 positions in Singapore and 4 positions in California.
PayPal has also has been collaborating with Coinbase since 2016. And in 2018 the companies agreed to include a feature for American clients that permits Coinbase customers to make fiat withdrawals directly to their PayPal accounts.
PayPal and Venmo are by no means the first major tech companies to move into the cryptocurrency world. Two of the largest companies in the social media arena are increasingly interested in Bitcoin and blockchain technology, with Facebook famously attempting to launch its coin called Libra, and Jack Dorsey CEO of Twitter continues to be an advocate of Bitcoin and has already made the digital asset accessible on CashApp, his FinTech business.
