On Tuesday, June 7, PayPal Holdings Inc announced that it will now enable users to transfer cryptocurrencies to external wallets. Additionally, users can even transfer bitcoin after this announcement. The recent news is a surprise since it’s been two years since the fintech company opened its platform to digital currencies.
Furthermore, selected PayPal users in the United States now have this feature starting from June 7. In addition, California-based PayPal revealed that other eligible US customers would be able to transfer crypto to external wallets in the coming months.
Moreover, PayPal users have been able to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin, Ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin since October 2020. However, the fintech giant did not allow customers to move their crypto holdings off the platform. As a result, users have been requesting such an ability since the time PayPal allowed buying/selling of crypto on its platform. Interestingly, at that time, PayPal’s shares boosted up to 0.3% at $87.08.
Additionally, customers can transfer supported coins into PayPal with the new functionality. Then, they can move crypto from its app to external crypto addresses, including exchanges and hardware wallets. As a result, customers can send crypto to other PayPal users in seconds. However, they will have to pay the network fees during an external transfer, unlike the no fees rule in internal transfers.
Conclusion
The crypto market has seen an increase in interested investors since last year. The list of investors includes large venture investors, celebrities, and blue-chip companies, all of whom doubled down on crypto investments. However, recently, the prices of digital currencies have been unstable. And as a result, the crypto market is seeing a decline, especially considering the rising inflation. The digital currency was previously seen as a protection against inflation, but now, that isn’t so. However, da Ponte said that PayPal is moving in this direction “as people are [still] adopting cryptocurrencies.” He revealed that the fintech giant is in this for the long term and will “continue to invest in the space.”
