KEY POINTS

  • PayPal will now allow customers to transfer cryptocurrencies
  • The firm has been granted a full Bitlicense from the NYDFS
  • PayPal first introduced crypto services for BTC, BCH, LTC, and ETH in 2020

PayPal plans to boost app usage and will allow people to transfer certain cryptocurrencies using their accounts, with the aim to capitalize on the crypto market boom that started last year.

“This is really about access and utility, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, senior vice-president and general manager for PayPal’s blockchain, crypto and digital currencies business, told Bloomberg in an interview. “We are greatly enhancing the utility of moving crypto around.”

Using the application, people will be able to send and receive cryptocurrencies to other users of the platform or other wallets and exchanges, PayPal said in a statement. Interestingly, this has been one of the most requested enhancements since the company began offering the purchase of crypto on its platform.

Selected users in the U.S. will now be able to use the service, and in the coming days, all the eligible U.S. customers will have access to the same.

Separately, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) granted full Bitlicense to PayPal and it has become the first company to convert a conditional Bitlicense into a full Bitlicense, it said.

PayPal integrated crypto services in late 2020, allowing customers to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC).

"Customers who transfer their crypto into PayPal can extend the utility of their crypto by spending using our Checkout with Crypto product at millions of merchants," it said.

It also recently introduced a new 'Checkout with Crypto' feature that provides an option to use crypto for purchases from merchants.

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