PayPal announced the launch of a new service enabling its customers in the UK to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with starts rolling out this week.
Customers can choose from four types of cryptocurrencies; Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. They can buy a minimum of £1 in cryptocurrency through the PayPal app or website.
They can also view real-time crypto prices, access educational content to help answer commonly asked questions, and learn more about cryptocurrencies, including the opportunities and risks.
This announcement marks the first international expansion of the company’s cryptocurrency offering outside of the United States.
This March, the company announced ‘Checkout with Crypto’, enabling U.S. customers to use their cryptocurrency alongside other payment methods in their PayPal wallet to make purchases at businesses around the world. In April, the company introduced crypto services on its mobile payment service Venmo in the U.S.
In addition to providing these cryptocurrency services, PayPal has been exploring the potential of digital currencies through partnerships with licensed and regulated cryptocurrency platforms and with central banks around the world.
PayPal has enabled its cryptocurrency offering through a partnership with Paxos Trust Company. PayPal’s venture capital arm has also made investments in blockchain and cryptocurrency-related start-ups including; TRM Labs, a cryptocurrency risk management software; TaxBit, a provider of crypto tax software to customers and exchanges; and Talos, institutional-grade infrastructure technology for digital asset trading.
“Our global reach, digital payments expertise, and knowledge of consumer and businesses, combined with rigorous security and compliance controls provides us the unique opportunity, and the responsibility, to help people in the UK to explore cryptocurrency.
We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the UK, and around the world, to offer our support—and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”
said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Vice President and General Manager, Blockchain, Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal.
