The CEO of the payment giant Paypal (PayPal shares), Dan Schulman, said the demand for cryptocurrencies is much higher than they initially expected. Recently, Venmo (owned by PayPal), launched new features related to cryptocurrencies to allow its users to buy, sell and own cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin.
The demand for cryptocurrencies exceeds Paypal's expectations
Dan Schulman spoke specifically about bitcoin in an interview with Time Magazine, published last Sunday. Paypal is present in more than 200 countries and trades in more than 100 currencies. Last year, the company processed 15,4 billion in payments, worth $ 936 billion. The company has around 30 million merchants in its network.
Schulman began his Time interview by sharing his story and how he used Paypal's crypto service to buy boots and pay for them with bitcoin. Noting that it only took a few clicks and seconds to buy with the cryptocurrency, he said it "was very interesting". A truly commendable initiative from his company, which wants to "help move digital currency into the mainstream by adding cryptocurrency services," the CEO said.
One of the questions he was asked during the interview was “What does this shift to digital currencies mean for the financial system as we know it?”. Schulman replied: "In the next 5 or 10 years, there will be more changes in the financial system than there have been in the last 10 or 20 years," adding:
“The demand on the cryptographic side was higher than we initially expected. There is a lot of excitement ”. Schulman also said Paypal "has been looking into digital forms of currency and DLT for about six years now."
The new Venmo services have just launched
However, he noted: “But I thought it was early, and I thought cryptocurrencies at the time were a lot more assets than they were currency. They were too volatile to be a valid currency. And it was still a little too much for people who didn't really understand what they were getting into, and what we really wanted to do, was make sure it became a little more mainstream so that we could work hand-in-hand with regulators before entering any what in the market ".
Paypal launched its encryption service for US customers in November last year. The company then set up a dedicated cryptocurrency business unit in February and enabled cryptocurrency payments in millions of stores with the “cryptocurrency checkout” launch in late March. Last week, Venmo began launching cryptocurrency trading for its 70 million users who will be able to buy, sell and own cryptocurrencies.
What do you think of the Paypal CEO's comments on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
