Key Highlights:
- Starting this week, PayPal will allow British users to purchase, hold, and trade digital currencies.
- PayPal claims that its entry into the cryptocurrency market is intended to make it easier for consumers to participate in the market.
- PayPal is one of a slew of companies dabbling in the mostly unregulated realm of cryptocurrency.
PayPal’s crypto service
PayPal has announced the debut of its bitcoin business in the United Kingdom. Starting this week, the online payments giant said that British clients would be able to purchase, hold, and trade digital currencies. It’s the first worldwide extension of PayPal’s cryptocurrency service, which debuted in the United States in October of last year.
“It has been doing really well in the U.S.,” Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s general manager for blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies told, “We expect it’s going to do well in the U.K.”
Customers may purchase or trade bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, or litecoin for as little as £1 using PayPal’s crypto function. Users may also discover instructional information on the market and watch crypto values in real-time.
PayPal is depending on Paxos, a New York-based digital currency business, to facilitate crypto buying and selling in the United Kingdom, just as it is in the United States. PayPal stated that it had communicated with appropriate U.K. authorities. The service will be launched after approval from regulators.
Growing adoption
PayPal’s crypto service is comparable to that of Revolut, a British fintech startup. PayPal users, like Revolut users, are unable to move their crypto holdings outside of the app. Revolut has just begun testing a service that allows customers to withdraw bitcoin to their own wallets.
PayPal claims that its entry into the cryptocurrency market is intended to make it easier for consumers to participate in the market. “The tokens and coins have been around for a while but you had to be a relatively sophisticated user to be able to access that,” da Ponte said. “Having that on a platform like ours makes a really good entry point.”
Many big financial institutions are entering the relatively unregulated realm of cryptocurrency, including the payments processor. Despite worries about price volatility, consumer protection, and potential money laundering in the market, big corporations such as Mastercard, Tesla, and Facebook have recently expressed interest in crypto.
‘Bitcoins’
PayPal’s crypto service is being launched in the United Kingdom at a time when regulators are becoming increasingly concerned about the emergence of digital currency. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) suspended the British unit of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, in June, alleging a failure to comply with money-laundering regulations.
Meanwhile, as cash usage in the number of industrialized countries declines, central banks are considering the possibility of issuing their own digital currencies. The UK Treasury and Bank of England said in April that they will consider the introduction of a digital version of the British pound, nicknamed “Britcoin” by the British press.
CBDCs, or central bank digital currencies, are a “wonderful potential,” according to Da Ponte, but policymakers will need time to iron out the major concerns.
Also Read: What Are the Advantages of Investing in The Currency Market?
