In the cryptocurrency industry, one of the hottest stories last year was the announcement by PayPal that it would facilitate cryptocurrency-related transactions on their platform.
PayPal (PayPal shares - ticker PYPL) is one of the largest fintech platforms in the world, with over 330 million users and tens of millions of traders. Its public acceptance and financial approval of the cryptocurrency were clear signs of how far the industry had come, and it also opened up the crypto utility to a wider audience.
Now, PayPal seems to have taken a step further, this is because it was announced on March 30, 2021 that US users can now spend their bitcoins by targeting tons of sellers with PayPal.
Payment with Bitcoin
The ability to process purchases with bitcoin at checkout, with an estimated 29 million sellers regularly using PayPal, means that the use of cryptocurrency is now further ahead than ever. According to PayPal's CEO, the service will be rolled out over the next few months of the year.
President and CEO Dan Schulman said this is the first time in the world that consumers can use cryptocurrencies as smoothly as if they were using a regular debit or credit card.
Its operation will be very simple. All those who have a PayPal account and BTC, ETH, bitcoin cash or litecoin, will be able to convert these digital currencies into fiat currencies at the time of payment and then make their purchases.
PayPal is the first to do this. Will others arrive too?
This announcement makes PayPal the largest private payment platform, enabling cryptocurrency transactions and is an important milestone for the industry. This comes soon after Tesla announced it would accept bitcoin as payment for its electric cars in the States.
In particular, bitcoin has been a real triumph, just months after its bull run that began in 2020. After falling to around $ 3.000 at the start of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, bitcoin has seen a new all-time high with a price of over $ 60.000
Now, bitcoin enthusiasts predict that the price of the digital currency could reach $ 100.000 by the end of the year, even as bitcoin soars into universality.
Despite all this, there is still some concern related mainly to the volatility of bitcoin and other crypto. However, PayPal hopes to address this issue with fiat currency conversion.
Also the CEO of PayPal, added that this could be a game changer for cryptocurrencies. In particular, we would be witnessing the transition from what were predominantly assets to be bought, owned or sold, to a legitimate source of finance to transact in the real world.
At this point, paying and buying with bitcoin becomes even easier. If this model is extended to the whole world, it will only benefit the whole sector. However, PayPal has not yet expressed itself in this sense.
