Paypal Allows Users to Buy and Pay for Goods and Services Using Cryptocurrencies

American digital payments company PayPal Inc. has announced a new cryptocurrencies checkout service to enable users to buy goods and services using their virtual coins. The new feature opens the way for millions of its merchants and customers to conduct business using cryptocurrencies.

The move is seen as a boost for crypto, which has rallied this year, fueled by the increase in interest from mainstream investors betting on further demand for the coins in the future.

PayPal customers will check out with crypto, but the company will automatically convert the coins into fiat currency for the merchants. The automatic conversion shields merchants from the volatility risk, one of the significant concerns hampering mainstream crypto adoption.

For crypto payments, PayPal will not charge transaction fees, although users are limited to use one coin to perform a single transaction.

President and CEO Dan Schulman told Reuters, “This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet.”

Checkout with crypto was announced last year, in addition to PayPal’s plans to allow users to buy, hold and sell their crypto using digital wallets. However, the company was to allow users to pay for goods and services offered by millions of its merchants starting this year.

Since its launch in 2020, PayPal allows users in the US to buy, hold and sell select cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

PayPal became one of the major companies to venture into crypto, which has also helped rally Bitcoin’s price and other mainstream altcoins.

Support for payments follows a recent announcement by Tesla Inc, the American EV manufacturer, to accept bitcoin payments. But unlike PayPal, Tesla will receive car payments in BTC and store them in that form.

PayPal and Crypto

Earlier this month, PayPal acquired Curv, an Israel-based cloud-based infrastructure provider for digital asset security, as it pushes further into cryptocurrency.

Also, the company plans to expand support for cryptocurrencies to more countries around the world. Cryptocurrency support is currently limited to the US.

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