On Wednesday, PayPal Holdings (NASDAQ: PYPL) announced it enables U.S. merchants to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency from their business accounts.
Cryptocurrency has moved from being a nascent asset class towards greater market acceptance after bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved for listing by the U.S. SEC earlier in the year.
“Business owners have increasingly expressed a desire for the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies at PayPal.
In 2020, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) joined the cryptocurrency market, allowing customers to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin and other virtual coins using the digital payments company’s online wallets.
The company became the first major financial technology firm to embrace digital currencies for payments and transfers when it launched its dollar-backed stablecoin in August 2023.
Stablecoins are crypto tokens whose monetary value is pegged to a stable asset to protect potential investors from wild price swings.
San Jose, California-based PayPal also enables U.S. merchants to transfer cryptocurrency on the chain externally to third-party eligible wallets.
However, the services would not be available for business accounts in New York State at launch, the company said on its website.
Shares of PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) gained nearly 26% year-to-date.
(Source: ReutersReuters)
