PayPal added a feature that let its customers fund purchases with cryptocurrency last year, and now it’s giving them more features to move their crypto around. It’s able to offer the expanded capabilities thanks to receiving a full “Bitlicense” by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
The company announced this week, “We are thrilled to announce that starting today, PayPal supports the native transfer of cryptocurrencies between PayPal and other wallets and exchanges. This feature has been consistently ranked by users as one of the most requested enhancements since we began offering the purchase of crypto on our platform.”
New York had given PayPal a provisional Bitlicense in the fall of 2020, at which time PayPal introduced the ability for users to buy, hold and sell select cryptocurrencies directly within its digital wallet, stating at the time it was doing so to “increase consumer understanding and adoption of cryptocurrency.”
Early the following year, PayPal began allowing customers to check out with crypto seamlessly within PayPal through the launch of Checkout with Crypto.
PayPal had been one of the companies that had jumped on the Facebook Libra initiative bandwagon in 2019 only to quickly bow out along with many others after regulators pushed back, fearing that it would destabilize the global monetary order, according to Coindesk.
Companies like PayPal are eager to be on the leading edge of what has enormous potential despite its inherent risks. In this week’s announcement, PayPal said, it would continue to roll out additional crypto features, products, and services in the months ahead.
