PayPal announces plans to expand its digital currency services

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PayPal CEO Dan Schulman laid out PayPal’s plans for their blockchain and digital currency service offerings during PayPal’s quarterly earnings call on February 3rd. During the call, Schulman said that PayPal users will be able to spend their digital currency with the 29 million merchants that use PayPal before the end of Q1 2021. 

Schulman also went on to say that PayPal plans for its digital currency buy, sell, and hold services to be available on their mobile payments app Venmo “in the coming months.”

Integrating blockchain

During the call, Schulman alluded to blockchain playing a bigger role in PayPal’s processes in the future.

“We all know the current financial system is antiquated, and we can envision a future where transactions are completed in seconds, not days; a future where transactions should be less expensive to complete; and a future that enables all people to be part of the digital economy, not just the affluent,” said Schulman. “We are significantly investing in our new crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies business unit in order to help shape this more inclusive future.”

Recently, we have seen legacy financial service providers devote more of their resources to building out blockchain and digital currency infrastructure and services. Many legacy providers like PayPal and Visa were originally taking a “wait and see” approach to both industries, but now, there is a significant amount of evidence that blockchain technology and digital currency are here to stay. Just as Schulman said, when using a blockchain as a payment rail, transactions can be sent from Point A to Point B at a faster rate for much cheaper. 

Schulman also hinted that PayPal is working towards offering even more digital currency services for its users, saying that, “this is just the beginning of the opportunities we see as we work hand-in-hand with regulators to accept new forms of digital currencies.”