Last October, global payments service provider PayPal announced that it was working on rolling out a “Checkout with Crypto” feature on its platform. This, as expected, was met with a lot of enthusiasm and excitement especially because of what it meant for the crypto sector. Crypto was already well on its way to mainstream adoption and this would certainly be a huge leap forward.
On March 31, 2021, the company finally rolled out the feature. Now its customers in the United States can use the digital currencies they hold to pay at millions of PayPal’s online merchants across the globe. The ability to use crypto in their PayPal wallets is made possible by the company’s robust system which will be responsible for converting the crypto holdings to fiat currency – this is the only way that the transactions will be completed.
Still, it is a pretty impressive development. Not only does it make using crypto particularly easy even for newbies but it also builds on the crypto trading features that the company has been adding to its platform. According to PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman, the timing is just right for this.
“We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold and or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants,” he commented.
Global Roll Out Coming Soon
The United States is just the beginning for PayPal’s new feature. In addition to giving the company a view of what to expect going forward, the move to begin the rollout in the United States will serve as a launchpad for further expansion in other parts of the world. A gradual rollout of the “Checkout with Crypto” feature is set to follow very soon with the company looking to bring it to over 200 countries where it is currently operating in.
PayPal is not the first company to double down on its efforts to tap into the crypto ecosystem – companies like Tesla and Square have already been making the headlines with similar ventures. However, the payments service provider is taking a unique approach. One of its main priorities will be dealing with the volatility that Bitcoin and other digital currencies are known for. This is why it converts the crypto to fiat before completing the transactions.
It is also worth noting that there will be no service fees for the feature which is quite good to see since it lives up to one of the promises of crypto. Also, only one type of cryptocurrency will be used for each transaction, at least for now.
