PayPal Launches New Business Unit Dedicated to Crypto Seeing High Crypto Trading Volumes

One of the world’s biggest payments processing firm PayPal recently released its Q4 2020 earnings report with a strong set of data. The company’s entry to the cryptocurrency market in October 2020 has helped it register the strongest year on record.

In mid-November 2020, PayPal started its cryptocurrency trading services for all U.S. customers and it picked up pretty well from there. Speaking to analysts, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman noted that they have been working on an extensive roadmap around blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies.

“Even with high initial expectations, the volume of crypto trading on our platform, greatly exceeded our projections,” he said. “These initial steps are just the beginning of an extensive roadmap around crypto, blockchain and digital currencies”.

The CEO also unveiled the company’s plan for having a dedicated business unit. He also added that the existing financial framework is outdated and they are working on introducing a lot of resources in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

“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. We are significantly investing in our new crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies business unit in order to help shape this more inclusive future,” he said.

Schulman assured that PayPal’s crypto trading service shall be soon available to its customers worldwide. Besides, he also added that PayPal customers will be able to make crypto payments for goods and services across 29 million registered merchants.

This service, however, shall be available for the end of the first quarter in Q1 2021. Following this, the payments giant will launch its first international market along with Venmo integration of crypto.

It seems that PayPal is making all efforts to make aggressive push in the crypto space. The PayPal CEO also added that they might integrate central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the future. "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,” he added.