Online-payments giant PayPal is set to roll out direct sales of bitcoin (BTC) to its 325 million users.
According to a report, three sources have confirmed that PayPal and its affiliated platform Venmo will allow their users to directly buy and sell Bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies.
PayPal to On-Ramp 325 Million to Bitcoin
Fintech giant PayPal is set to extend its crypto involvement by opening up another fiat on-ramp offering direct sales for Bitcoin (BTC).
At the moment, PayPal only offers a gateway for withdrawing funds from exchanges, but this is the first time the payments application will offer direct sales of Bitcoin.
‘My understanding is that they are going to allow buys and sells of crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo,’ said the PayPal source.
‘They are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there, and I would expect them to be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity.’
There was nobody from PayPal willing to make a statement on the rumour, but the source did say it would be rolled out ‘in the next three months, maybe sooner.’
Bitcoin Not Blockchain Now?
PayPal has long had a ‘blockchain not Bitcoin’ stance, and founding CEO Bill Harris is on record as saying ‘Bitcoin is a scam.’ ‘Bitcoin is the greatest scam in history. It’s a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen.’
Strong words. And this guy was educated at Harvard business school!
While last year, PayPal CFO John Rainey said, ‘they are still much more pro-blockchain while still not being fully vested in the cryptocurrency side of things.’
Although, Rainey wasn’t fully dismissive of Bitcoin, just saying that it was ‘a bit early for Bitcoin.
Why The About-Face From PayPal?
Well, it seems like it’s not too early for Bitcoin anymore. So why the about-face from PayPal?
They were supposed to be part of the Libra Association, which was a consortium of founding members working together as part of Facebook’s Libra crypto project, but PayPal among others pulled out of that.
There was no comment direct from PayPal as to their reason for pulling out of the Libra Association, and many believed it was down to pressure from Washington, but rumours started spilling late last year that PayPal were interested in getting involved in the crypto space in other ways.
PayPal have filed several crypto-related patents including one to speed up bitcoin transactions through a faster cryptocurrency payment system.
PayPal is also seeing the success of its ayment rivals Square and Revolut, both of which offer direct cryptocurrency payments.
Square Inc. is a payments company founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, was awarded the Bitclicence last year, which allows them to deal in cryptocurrencies. No mean feat.
And Revolut began offering crypto after partnering with Bitstamp. The British based banking app raised $500 million in February, valuing the platform at $5.5 billion.
PayPal Will Be a Huge On-Ramp for Bitcoin
PayPal getting into Bitcoin surprises nobody in the Bitcoin-space. I can imagine even the overly “educated” Bill Harris might have woken up to the idea too.
Blockchain not Bitcoin was the mainstream narrative for the uninitiated, and I’m sure most people had doubts until they really started to understand Bitcoin.
The media can be rather dogmatic in their enthusiasm to misguide people. They might have pulled the wool over the eyes of many, but people are discovering facts for themselves.
And 325 million people are about to discover its Bitcoin not blockchain, or even PayPal for that matter.
Author: Tommy Limpitlaw
A Bitcoiner since 2017 and a Bitcoin Maximalist since 2018, Tommy is our main writer and editor at Bitcoin Maximalist. Other than researching and writing about Bitcoin, Tommy loves spending time with his family and supporting his beloved Leeds United.
