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PayPal will now let all users in the US buy and sell cryptocurrencies

PayPal will now let all users in the US buy and sell cryptocurrencies

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The company announced the functionality was on the way last month

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

PayPal will now let all users in the US buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies right from their PayPal account. The news came in an update to a press release from last month announcing that the new functionality was on the way (via TechCrunch).

I’m seeing the functionality available in the PayPal app. For me, there’s a banner about the ability to buy cryptocurrency right at the top of the main screen, and if I tap that, I can choose to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.

The cryptocurrency section in the PayPal app.
The cryptocurrency section in the PayPal app.

PayPal’s support of cryptocurrency is a significant vote of confidence in the digital currencies and could encourage everyday users to adopt them. However, PayPal isn’t the first financial tech company to support cryptocurrencies; Square’s Cash app added support for Bitcoin in 2018, for example.

PayPal plans to expand cryptocurrency features to Venmo and to “select international markets” in the first half of next year. And in early 2021, PayPal plans to let you pay PayPal merchants with cryptocurrency.