Anonymous sources have revealed that the payments giant will be revealing this new feature within the next three months
PayPal, the online payments giant, is looking at supporting direct transactions in cryptocurrencies for its client base, which reportedly boasts over 320 million people.
A report released by CoinDesk showed that three sources have confirmed to the crypto industry publication that PayPal, as well as its affiliated platform Venmo, will allow their users to buy and sell several cryptocurrencies in a direct manner. However, the coins the platform will support and the number of coins that it will support have yet to be revealed.
“They are going to allow buys and sells of crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo,” an anonymous source informed CoinDesk, “They are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
The industry source voiced out their belief that PayPal “would be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity.”
While PayPal itself declined to comment on the rumours, another source informed CoinDesk that the company plans to fully reveal its crypto offering anytime within the next three months.
Historically, PayPal’s stance on the entire ecosystem was that the company believed in the potential of blockchain, but not in cryptocurrency. However, as the mainstream payment industry has turned to crypto, the company appears to finally be reconsidering their stance.
Last year, PayPal Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John Rainey revealed that while the company has invested in studying blockchain and cryptocurrencies, it is not the right time to invest in Bitcoin.
“We have teams clearly working on blockchain and cryptocurrency as well, and we want to take part in that in whatever form that takes in the future — I just think it’s a little early on right now for bitcoin.” Rainey said.
Unfortunately, these ambitions were put into question after PayPal was the first company to pull out of the coalition of organisations involved in Facebook’s cryptocurrency initiative, the Libra Association.
PayPal did not offer a reason for leaving the Libra at the time; however, shortly after there were several courses of action that the company took to suggest that they were still interested in getting involved in cryptocurrency.
For one, the firm’s recent investment in crypto compliance and risk management platform TRM Labs is a clear step towards the crypto industry. PayPal also filed many related patents including one that would speed up bitcoin transaction processing times using a faster crypto payment system.
The company is also asserting itself against its rival, Square, on more fronts, including in digital assets. Founded and run by Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, Square Inc was recently awarded a coveted license to deal in cryptocurrencies in New York.