PayPal (PYPL) will now allow business customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies directly from their accounts in the US, potentially opening up a bigger market for the payments giant.
The company has been allowing retail users to do similar operations via their PayPal and Venmo accounts for several years, but it is also seeing demand from business owners to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, the company said on Wednesday. Announced.
“Business owners are increasingly demanding the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers,” José Fernández da Ponte, senior vice president of blockchain, cryptocurrencies and digital currencies at PayPal, said in a statement. “
The payments company will also allow U.S. merchants to transfer cryptocurrencies on-chain to external “eligible” third-party wallets, according to the statement.
Initially, the service will no longer be available to business customers in New York state, the company said, but did not say when the change would occur. The company is one of about 20 companies to receive the Empire State's notoriously strict BitLicense. It also holds a trust license from the state Department of Financial Services.
Since 2020, PayPal has allowed consumers to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrencies directly from their accounts. Last year, the company announced its USD-denominated stablecoin PayPal USD (PYUSD), which reached a market cap of $1 billion this summer.
Read more: Incentives drive activity on Solana as PayPal stablecoin reaches $1 billion market cap
