The mega-wallet provider Coinbase and global payments leader PayPal have formed the start of a new agreement that will allow PayPal customers to do more than ever before with Bitcoin.
PayPal is actively investing in Bitcoin’s future
As Bitcoin prices fluctuate wildly before the halving event next month, now taking a downturn even more impressive than its previous bull-run, the Bitcoin community continues to add infrastructure and forge major new deals that make for a stronger future. Bitcoin price and charts may change every day, but it is a good time to look beneath the numbers for true Bitcoin value.
On Tuesday, Coinbase announced that they have a deal with PayPal where American users of PayPal will be able to sell Bitcoin and receive the funds directly into their PayPal account. According to the Coinbase corporate blog, this is just the beginning of what will be a global agreement that will affect all of the almost 200 million PayPal customers, worldwide.
“Thousands of Coinbase users use PayPal for their fiat currency transactions around the world. Through this integration, Coinbase users are now able to sell BTC and have their USD funds deposited to a PayPal wallet. To start, we’re offering PayPal cash-out for US users only. In the future, we hope to add support for other countries, and to support buys through PayPal as well.”
The mass adoption of Bitcoin will depend largely upon the payment and service infrastructure that underpins each transaction. The easier and more convenient it is to buy and sell Bitcoin, the more people will do so. Integrating a leading service like PayPal is an important step in Coinbase’s goal of making Bitcoin transactions easily accessible, either through online payment or any debit card, which PayPal’s service can facilitate.
Buying Bitcoin directly
Coinbase also used this occasion to announce the ability to use credit cards to buy Bitcoin directly. Both systems are currently in beta, but are available by visiting the payment methods page on Coinbase.com or tap "Settings" and then "Payment Methods" on iOS or Android.
PayPal has been one of the more supportive and intrepid companies when it comes to seeing a future that includes Bitcoin in their business plan. PayPal, last November, held a hackathon called “Battlehack” to find new ways for PayPal to use and integrate bitcoin and blockchain technology. This event included Coinbase, as well as Snapcard and Chain. Concepts like cross-border payments, merchant processing, and creating a digital wallet using bitcoin were all brought to bear at the time.
In addition, PayPal’s Venmo allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin already, and as we have reported on recently, PayPal has been working on a new “modular device,” with patent filings, specifically designed for the use and storage of decentralized digital currencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Dogecoin