PayPal & Paxos Bring Crypto to Millions of Users

I am very excited to announce that Paxos is powering PayPal’s new service enabling its US users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal digital wallet. This news includes many firsts and has huge implications for the PayPal community, the crypto industry and, of course, Paxos.

For the PayPal community, today is the first time its users can purchase crypto assets directly from PayPal. PayPal is introducing the ability for its users to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. To start, PayPal is offering this service to its US customers, then plans to add more geographies and features over time. 

For the crypto industry, this news is significant because PayPal can drive increased awareness, education, adoption and utility for digital currencies. The PayPal global ecosystem has 346 million active accounts (including more than 26 million merchant accounts), and has the potential to significantly influence the size and reach of crypto markets in the years to come.  

For Paxos, I’m extremely proud we built the platform that powers PayPal’s cryptocurrency service. PayPal shares our commitment to building an open, digital economy. We build infrastructure solutions specifically for institutions to access an open financial system, making Paxos uniquely prepared for projects of this scale. We believe what sets us apart is our turnkey, enterprise-grade technology and regulatory licensing.

• Technology: Paxos Crypto Brokerage provides crypto custody and trading for PayPal.  Our APIs allow PayPal to offer crypto services seamlessly within the PayPal app with its simple and intuitive user experience. 

• Regulatory Licensing: Paxos has pioneered a regulation-first approach in the crypto industry starting with securing the first Trust charter to custody and offer crypto- and blockchain-based digital assets. We’re achieving another regulatory first again today: through Paxos, PayPal has been granted the first virtual currency conditional license from the New York State Department of Financial Services. Our dedication to regulatory licensing and consumer asset protection directly enables our clients’ ability to provide crypto to their customers. 

Blockchain technology has forever changed financial markets and the way we conceive of monetary assets, but is still in its early days. As companies like PayPal enter the space, they need a performant and trustworthy partner. We are proud to power this historic development in financial technology as we move society toward a brighter and open financial future.