PayPal’s U.S. Customers Can Now Make Payment With Bitcoin

After six months of integrating cryptocurrencies into its network, PayPal will now allow U.S. customers to pay for goods and services with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

According to a Reuters report, PayPal’s U.S. customers who hold supported cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC), will be able to convert their crypto holdings into fiats and pay for goods across the firm’s 29 million online merchants globally.

Per the report, Dan Schulman, PayPal’s President and CEO told Reuters that the development is the first time cryptocurrencies can be used in the same way as a credit or debit card inside the PayPal’s wallet.

“We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants,” Schulman said.

Interestingly, the PayPal boss also told Reuters that the service would not attract any transaction fees while adding that customers would be allowed to use only one cryptocurrency for each purchase.

Promoting Crypto Adoption

Since the beginning of the year, cryptocurrencies have continued to gain momentum with investors across different classes adopting the assets for investment purposes.

Despite the massive adoption, the rate at which cryptocurrencies are being used as a form of payment has been relatively slow.

Although few firms, including Tesla, have launched crypto checkout services as a way of promoting its widespread usage, other merchants have decided not to follow the same path. This is not far-affected, as crypto assets are considered highly volatile.

While this is true to an extent, PayPal hopes to change merchants’ opinions about cryptocurrencies’ volatility, by settling the transactions in fiat currency.

This way, the California-based company will shield its online merchants from crypto volatility risks that may arise from the new form of payment.