PayPal And Venmo May Support Crypto Trade By Sep. 2020

PayPal withdrew from the Facebook-led Libra association in October 2019. But if anonymous sources are to be believed, it appears the $199 billion Fintech Company may launch a crypto platform enabling their 350 million customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in the coming weeks reports CoinDesk, June 22, 2020.

PayPal Might Offer Support For Crypto Trading

There are no specific details on how PayPal will enable this. The giant may be an option for clients of partner cryptocurrency exchanges to withdraw digital assets via their platform.

In this arrangement, an in-built wallet will be built while it may opt to source liquidity from liaising ramps. Coinbase and Bitstamp have emerged as strong candidates.

However, an interesting addition will be support for direct buys and sales of a wide range of cryptocurrencies, a move that not only will drive adoption but cements the significance of digital assets.

Clearly, PayPal doesn’t want to miss out on the booming crypto space. Companies that offer a gateway for investors to securely and legally buy different digital assets are already making big money.

The likes of Square, Revolut, and Robinhood have in recent times announced record revenue from fees charged on crypto traders.

At the same time, their funding efforts have attracted heavyweight investors who pour millions of dollars cognizant that crypto will be a big feature in the future.

Monetizing Venmo

Specifically, and in line with PayPal’s CEO comments, the decision to delve into crypto would significantly boost Venmo.

After a strong close of 2019 marked by a multi-billion dollar purchase of Honey Science Corporation, Dan Schulman—the CEO, said the main objective in 2020 was to expand their platforms’ functionalities.

A big part of this is to monetize Venmo and focus on in-store initiatives. By Q4 2019, Venmo had over 52 million users, processing more than $29 billion in volumes in the quarter.

“In 2020, we’re looking to grow our investments based on our recent acquisitions, building new infrastructure in China and other international markets, continuing work on monetizing Venmo and [expanding] our focus on our in-store initiatives.”

In May 2020, Sri Shivananda urged crypto developers to follow consumers should they want the industry to take off. In his assessment, cryptocurrencies—as it is, were more like assets than currencies. Still, he believed the move to digitize currencies was inevitable.