Coinbase now allows withdrawals via PayPal

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Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) users now have an extra option available to them when choosing to withdraw their funds from the cryptocurrency exchange. In a move that didn’t receive a great deal of fanfare, Coinbase has added PayPal to its platform, allowing users to make easy fiat withdrawals through the payment services solution. As an added bonus, the withdrawals don’t incur any additional fees.

No official announcement of the PayPal support was provided by Coinbase. However, users have reported receiving an email informing them of the capability. The only mention of it in on the Coinbase website is in the company’s FAQ, and reads, “Beginning in November, Coinbase will add the ability for customers to link their PayPal and Coinbase accounts. Depending on country of residence, customers can either withdraw cash to PayPal or sell their crypto to their PayPal account.”

To make a withdrawal using PayPal, users must complete Coinbase’s Know Your Customer process. Once that’s complete, they receive an email confirming that they’re eligible to take advantage of the implementation.

Withdrawals using PayPal are available in U.S. dollars, UK pounds and euros. Currently, only customers in the U.S., Canada, the UK and the European Union are eligible, but this could change soon. Coinbase mentions in its FAQ that it plans to provide support for the Australian dollar, as well as the Canadian dollar, in the near future.

Whether or not deposits will be facilitated through PayPal remains to be seen. It seems like a logical next step, given the platform’s wide range of services.

This isn’t the first time Coinbase has integrated PayPal into the exchange. PayPal withdrawals were available last year, but Coinbase temporarily suspended the option and subsequently eliminated it completely due to what it described as performance issues.

PayPal has over 244 million customers and managed 7.6 billion payment transactions in 2017. That level of volume could prove to be extremely beneficial to Coinbase and help increase mainstream adoption, as long as it is marketed properly.

According to a number of reactions in social media, the withdrawal capability is somewhat spotty. Some have indicated that it takes up to 13 days to receive the funds and others—even those living in the specified countries—have said that the service doesn’t work at all. It may be a work in progress, but should prove to give Coinbase, and cryptocurrencies, a significant boost.