PayPal realizes its ambition to democratize cryptocurrencies
Online payment giant PayPal is continuing to diversify, today securing the expansion of its new dedicated cryptocurrency service to the UK. PayPal's UK customers will now be able to buy, hold and sell crypto-currencies from their e-wallets. This launch was already live in the US for several months.
FACTS
- UK PayPal users will soon be able to fund their wallets with crypto-currencies. A new web page has been put online to announce this imminent launch and to start explaining this new service to local PayPal customers.
- The web giant plays above all the card of the education and will propose notably contents to make discover crypto-currencies to the neophytes.
- Users of the service will also be able to follow the prices of each crypto-currency from the PayPal application.
- Four digital currencies will be accessible via PayPal, namely:
- Bitcoin
- Bitcoins Cash
- Ethereum
- Litecoin
- PayPal offers to buy crypto-currencies via its service starting at £1.
- The customer journey is simplified to the maximum; a new tab "crypto" allows access to two buttons (buy or sell) that allow, beyond the spaces dedicated to education, to initiate transactions from the application or the website of PayPal.
- Fees:
- 0.50£ fee for transactions (buy or sell) worth between 1 and 24.99£
- 2.30% fee for transactions (buy or sell) worth between £25 and £100
- 2% fee for transactions (buying or selling) worth between £100.1 and £200
- 1.80% fee for transactions (buying or selling) worth between £200.1 and £1000
- 1.50% fee for transactions (buying or selling) worth £1000.1 and above
- free storage of funds
ISSUES
- Taking advantage of the pandemic: Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Vice President and General Manager Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal, had highlighted the role of Covid-19 in the digitization of services and money. For a historical player in the digitization of money, a positioning on the crypto-asset market thus represents a natural evolution.
- Banking on education: PayPal is committed to disseminating a lot of educational content to help users of its service learn more about the virtual currency ecosystem, the volatility of this market, its risks and the opportunities related to the purchase of crypto-currency.
- Slow rollout: The opening of the purchase/sale of crypto-currencies in the United Kingdom represents a first step for PayPal in terms of spreading its service internationally. Since the announcement of the opening of this new activity by the group in the United States in October 2020, PayPal had not offered its new service in any other country.
MARKET PERPECTIVE
- PayPal is held back in its ambition to participate in the democratization of crypto-currencies by the regulatory bodies of the various countries where the giant wishes to operate. But its ambitions on this buoyant market remain high and PayPal uses the US territory in particular to illustrate its scope (via Venmo for example).
- In addition to the crypto-currency market, PayPal is more globally looking to build a super-app combining multiple services around payment, ranging from instant messaging, through savings, check cashing, split payment or managing returns related to remote sales for example.