The PayPal users will be able to convert their cryptocurrencies to fiat money. This step is significant for demonstrating the doubling amount of support given by the global payment service to the world of cryptocurrencies.

This new move from PayPal will make the company one of the major crypto players and bring significant growth to the world of cryptocurrency. Here is the brief history behind this recent act of PayPal:

PayPal platform was founded in 1998 by Max Levchin, Luke Nosek, and Peter Thiel. The acquisition of the business by eBay (for $1.5 billion) in 2002 made it the biggest international payment method. At that period PayPal had 185 million users. The company separated from eBay in 2015. Today it has more than 370 million users around the world. 

Before taking real action, PayPal winked at Bitcoin twice: In 2013, the then-president David Marcus told that the company was thinking of adding Bitcoin to the PayPal system. One year later, a short promotional video that the company released included a line about Bitcoin but the line was removed from the clip and the global payment service did not mention cryptocurrencies until the end of 2014.

The company’s real interest in crypto has been growing gradually and tentatively from 2014 on. PayPal is involved in the establishment of the links between virtual currency and fiat money in various ways. The company started making investments in the cryptocurrency space in 2018.

“At PayPal, we believe in democratizing participation in the digital economy for people from all walks of life and businesses of all sizes,”.

CEO Dan Schulman

Seven years after the first rumors about PayPal’s interest in cryptocurrency, in October 2020, PayPal made the official entrance into the crypto market. Thanks to the company’s service, the customers have been able to buy and sell cryptocurrency (only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin at the first phase). Although the users have full ownership over their assets, they could neither carry the virtual money off the platform nor use them to purchase goods.

Finally, in March this year, PayPal announced a big step to push cryptocurrency into the mainstream and make the global company a significant cryptocurrency player. Now the customers can perform a conversion between digital assets and fiat, enabling them to buy goods using their crypto assets. There will be no additional fee but one can use a certain type of cryptocurrency throughout each purchasing transaction. By the end of the first half of 2021, as PayPal expressed, the company’s mobile payment app subsidiary, Venmo, will also include crypto services.

The availability of cryptocurrency as a payment method in such a widespread platform might transform PayPal into a giant virtual wallet as the major actor in the market. We will see the impact of this historical act, followed by many other companies, on developing an inclusive next-generation financial system!