PayPal is ready to allow its users to purchase, sell, hold and use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies : the confirmation comes from the executive director Dan Schulman, who hoped that this move “encourage the global use of virtual currencies”, as well as prepare its network in anticipation of future digital currencies issued by central banks li, a topic on which an intense discussion activity took place precisely in this period.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on PayPal early next year

The online payment giant claimed that from the beginning of 2021 its users can actually spend their cryptocurrencies to make purchases at over 26 millions of traders who use its services. PayPal currently can count on about 346 millions of active accounts which, we emphasize to give a framework, they allowed him to process payments for a value of 222 billions of dollars during the second quarter of this year.

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But beware: cryptocurrency payments processed by PayPal will be settled in fiat currencies, so merchants will receive payments in dollars, euros or their reference currency. Therefore, cryptocurrencies will not be able to “leave” PayPal or even “enter”: to be able to use them on the payment network, they will need to be purchased and sold directly via PayPal . In other words: if we have a personal wallet and we already have cryptocurrency funds, we will not be able to transfer them to PayPal. Not only that: cryptocurrencies cannot be transferred between PayPal accounts, but used only to make payments to merchants.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin cash and Litecoin: the cryptocurrencies supported by PayPal

Among the cryptocurrencies initially supported, in addition to the “king” Bitcoin , there will also be Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin . Currently it is not known whether PayPal wants to expand support to some of the numerous other existing cryptocurrencies in the future: for example, the absence of Ripple or Stellar .

It is however interesting to consider Schulman’s statement, who underlined: “We are working with central banks and thinking about all forms of digital currency and how PayPal can play a role” . In short, it seems that PayPal’s long-term ambitions are to become the reference point for payments with cryptocurrencies: