PayPal is set to begin allowing customers to make purchases on its platform by converting their cryptocurrency holdings into fiat currencies at checkout, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: Despite the surge in popularity of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, the volatile asset has not become a mainstream form of payment. PayPal believes its move will help make cryptocurrency use more common, per Reuters.
Details: PayPal will not charge a transaction fee for customers using crypto, though only one type of crypto coin will be allowed per purchase, Reuters reports.
- Customers holding bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin in their Paypal accounts will be able to convert their cryptocurrencies into fiat.
- The company hopes to have the crypto checkout service available at all its 29 million vendors in the next few months.
What they're saying: "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,” PayPal president and CEO Dan Schulman told Reuters.
- “We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants."
Our thought bubble, via Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon: While millions of people have PayPal wallets, many fewer use them to hold bitcoin, and most of those who do are prone to hold rather than spend.
- The reason bitcoin hasn’t taken off as a payment mechanism is less about acceptance and more about the tiny number of people that want it to use it that way.
Go deeper: Elon Musk's bet on bitcoin as payment