So far, the management of PayPal is not going to convert currency reserves into Bitcoin, Ethereum or any other digital asset. Moreover, such statements were made, despite the confidence of the platform’s management in the bright future of the booming blockchain industry.
Last year, PayPal integrated Bitcoin and several popular altcoins into its payment system, which has greatly spurred the speed of asset acceptance among its hundreds of millions of customers. However, now there is no talk of transferring the company’s personal savings to the crypt. Let’s talk about the situation in more detail.
Recall that the news about the integration of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies into the PayPal platform became known at the end of October 2020. The market reacted to the news, thanks to which BTC grew from 12.25 to 13.24 thousand dollars during the day. Many analysts saw the company’s decision as one of the main catalysts for the coin growth phase that is currently underway.
Nevertheless, thanks to the efforts of the platform, a huge number of users gained access to the coins. And although they cannot withdraw the crypto to third-party wallets – just as they do not own the private key to access the contents of the cryptocurrency address, they still managed to make money on the growth of Bitcoin.
It is worth noting that the company also experienced benefits from its actions. As PayPal CEO Dan Shulman said earlier this month, «the volume of crypto trading has exceeded their expectations,» and significantly. In addition, coin buyers visit the platform twice as often as they did before purchasing. Read more about the company’s attitude to crypto in a separate article.
Bitcoin is trading at $ 47,253 this morning, up 21.6 percent from a week ago. Of course, such a rapid growth of the cryptocurrency was provided not only by PayPal, but also other news on the type of investment in BTC by Tesla, but the decision of the payment platform still played its role.
Will PayPal Invest in Bitcoin?
While PayPal sees tremendous opportunities in the development of digital wallets, the company most likely will not invest some of its capital in bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies. PayPal CFO John Rainey said the company is not interested in buying cryptocurrency. Instead, the firm prefers to invest in services that improve the network and infrastructure solutions within the industry, that is, in fact, help active cryptocurrency investors.
Here is one of Rainey’s quotes on this subject, in which he shares his attitude to what is happening. The replica is given by CryptoPotato.
We are not going to invest corporate money in such financial assets. But we want to capitalize on this growth opportunity that lies before us.
That is, the PayPal management admits that you can make good money on the cryptocurrency industry. However, they prefer to focus on their tasks and provide access to coins for the platform’s clients.
Rainey also noted that PayPal has outlined some plans to invest in companies that provide “additional platform assets” and capital growth. The firm will also present its services on a «buy, sell and store» crypto in the UK. An employee of the payments giant continues.
The types of services we provide, such as “buy now, pay later,” and crypt as an example, are the things we want to keep investing in.
In other words, PayPal wants to focus on developing a payment infrastructure for cryptocurrency enthusiasts, but at the same time, the company’s management is not willing to risk its capital and convert foreign exchange reserves into coins directly. PayPal management has already confirmed its belief in the digitalization of currencies and considers this process to be inevitable. Yet as we recall, in December, CEO Dan Shulman called digital wallets «a natural complement to digital currencies» and confirmed that the company supports and services 360 million digital wallets.
The question of direct investment in the cryptocurrency market has come up sharply in high-level circles of many organizations after Tesla announced its $ 1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin. However, some experts doubt that Tesla’s decision alone will launch a new trend of massive institutional investment in BTC and other digital assets.
At the same time, other analysts predict massive interest in buying bitcoins from other giants of the finance industry and other niches. In particular, on the eve such an opinion was voiced by the head of the Grayscale Investments fund, Michael Sonnenshein.
We believe PayPal’s decision to move away from direct investment in cryptocurrencies may be inconclusive. Nevertheless, representatives of the platform clearly know how actively the coins have grown over the past few weeks, which means they see prospects for increasing their own investments. In the meantime, this takes time and examples of other companies buying bitcoins.
