For the first time, payment company PayPal came out with a cryptocurrency offering outside the US market, providing access to the service to users from the UK. PayPal began expanding into the cryptocurrency space last October, giving its US customers the ability to buy, sell and store Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
As in the US, service in the UK will be mediated by Paxos. Withdrawing cryptocurrencies from PayPal to third-party wallets is still not possible, but the company has already said it is working on it . Investments are available from £ 1 or $ 1. British clients will not be able to invest more than £ 15k per week and £ 35k per year. In the US, the limit is $ 100,000 per week.
Against the background of the launch of PayPal crypto services in the UK, the digital asset market continued to grow, as a result, the price of BTC crossed the psychologically significant mark of $ 50,000:
On the cryptocurrency service, PayPal earns from fees charged to users. For transactions over a thousand dollars in the United States, customers have to pay 1.5%, while purchases under $ 25 are subject to a 50 cents charge.
The manager of the cryptocurrency department of PayPal, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, noted that one of the main motivations for the creation of such a service was the «digitalization of money» during the pandemic .
“Our global reach, digital payments expertise and consumer knowledge, coupled with robust security and compliance measures, have given us the unique opportunity and responsibility to help people in the UK embrace the cryptocurrency space ,” he added.
Connecting UK PayPal customers to cryptocurrencies kicks off this week and is expected to be completed within a few weeks. To take advantage of the offer, the client must have a verified account.
Against the background of the release of news about the expansion of PayPal crypto services, the company’s shares went up in the premarket.
We will remind, earlier representatives of the payment system noted that they plan to earn $ 2 billion in cryptocurrencies by 2023.
