Today, PayPal added crypto-trading to its payment service feature, with the crypto majors all rallying since the announcement.
PayPal ultimately plans to make crypto payments available at 26 million merchants globally.
Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, noted that the shift to supporting crypto was driven by what he sees as an “inevitable” drift toward virtual currencies.
“The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly.”
As part of its crypto services, PayPal received the first conditional Bitlicense from the New York Department of Financial Services, one of the most hawkish sub-national financial regulators in the U.S. Many noted that the terms of PayPal’s crypto services would entail that coins bought on the platform would not be able to leave, likely as part of its compromise with regulators in bringing crypto services to such a wide user base. This is likely to ensure financial hazard is kept at bay while also ensuring anti-money laundering activities are stemmed.
BTC closed at $17,674 USD today.
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