As early as 2020, payment giant PayPal embarked on the development of a digital asset offering . This Tuesday, the company has just announced the addition of a new feature: the possibility for users to transfer Bitcoin or Ethereum to external wallets.
A much-awaited feature from users!
Since this Tuesday, cryptophiles who go through PayPal can move their funds out of the platform. A feature long awaited by users and which allows one of the world leaders in online payment to further expand its crypto offer. In this way, PayPal also intends to get closer to the offers of certain players who have been offering this functionality for a long time.
” Starting today, PayPal supports native transfer of cryptocurrencies between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges. “
If the feature has been available since today in the United States, the American giant plans a full deployment in 1 to 2 weeks. For now, there is no question of offering this feature to users in other countries .
Thanks to this offer, PayPal could therefore attract new users. If the platform launched its crypto offer at the end of 2020, it initially only allowed the purchase, holding and sale of 4 different tokens: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. From now on, users can therefore move their funds to wallets such as Metamask or Coinbase. But also on physical wallets.
Note that this initiative could also be very appreciated by users of the Venmo application, also under the direction of PayPal. This application, used by millions of people around the world , allows you to transfer money . It is also increasingly used by merchants as a payment platform.
PayPal: A long-term view of the crypto market
Through this new initiative, PayPal is laying a new stone in its development strategy in the crypto market . Despite the market decline for months, the American company continues to believe in its potential. According to the leaders, the crypto market must above all think about the long term. As José Fernandez da Ponte, vice president of the blockchain segment at PayPal, explains:
” The reason we are in crypto is that we believe a substantial portion of commerce is going to shift to digital currencies. “
It is for this main reason that the company does not charge for crypto transactions . PayPal indeed believes that the future of the crypto sector lies in its use as a means of payment rather than a simply speculative asset. Without these two notions being necessarily contradictory. The company is also confident that CBDC will be adopted by a large number of countries. This hypothesis would in any case give credibility to its economic model.
