Use cryptocurrencies? Why you should look into payments with PayPal
If you’re big on using cryptocurrencies, you might want to think about hopping on PayPal to make your payments from now on. In November, the transaction site announced cryptocurrency trading, which allows users to trade Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin cash. Now, you can put the new practice into use.
How can you use cryptocurrencies on PayPal?
If you have cryptocurrency on hand, you can put it toward purchases on PayPal. If you upload your currencies, the app will show them alongside your bank account or bank cards. The only catch is that you have to make your payments from a single source – for example, you cannot pay with Bitcoin and Ethereum at the same time.
PayPal also essentially does all of the hard work for you. After you make your purchase on the site, it will automatically convert your money to USD. Because of this, if you need a refund, PayPal will give it to you in USD.
What did PayPal’s CEO have to say?
PayPal CEO Dan Schulman commented on the new development on the payment site. “As the use of digital payments and digital currencies accelerates,” he wrote, “the introduction of Checkout with Crypto continues our focus on driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, while continuing to offer PayPal customers choice and flexibility in the ways they can pay using the PayPal wallet.”
Schulman continued: “Enabling cryptocurrencies to make purchases at businesses around the world is the next chapter in driving the ubiquity and mass acceptance of digital currencies.”
Schulman also noted, “We think it is a transitional point where cryptocurrencies move from being predominantly an asset class that you buy, hold or sell to now becoming a legitimate funding source to make transactions in the real world at millions of merchants.”
PayPal’s statement
PayPal also released a statement about the new development in payment methods. “PayPal makes money when you buy and sell Crypto Assets,” they wrote. “PayPal will charge a spread (or margin) between the market price we receive from our trading Service Provider and the exchange rate between USD and Crypto Assets displayed to you.”
The statement continued: “PayPal charges a spread on every Crypto Asset transaction, including sales to Checkout with Crypto. The amount that PayPal makes and the exchange rate provided may be different than what you would pay on other cryptocurrency platforms.”
“More information on pricing and fees can be found on the PayPal Fees page, the PayPal Cash Long Form Disclosure and the PayPal Cash Plus Long Form Disclosure. PayPal does not charge a fee to sell Crypto Assets when you Checkout with Crypto.”
Is Bitcoin here to stay?
Although Bitcoin is undoubtedly picking up some traction – with PayPal using it and now Wall Street starting to integrate it into their systems – some people are now worrying the U.S. government will ban it like they once banned gold. This has a lot to do with the fact that bitcoin is hard to track and works to decentralize banks, which is not always in the government’s best interest.
Hedge fund manager Ray Dalio told Forbes last week that bitcoin might be banned by the government. “[We] have to see what [reports of a proposed bitcoin ban in India] means,” he said. “Now, can they do it? Yeah. Now we get into the particulars.”
“My understanding from people who are sort of in government surveillance is yes, they can understand, they can track it,” Dalio continued. “They can know who’s dealing with it . . . I would suspect it would be very hard to hold up against that kind of action.”
