Since the end of 2020, PayPal has allowed users in the United States to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The payment service even added the “Checkout With Crypto” option, so that users can pay with cryptocurrencies.
And now, the platform wants to provide more tools for managing these virtual currencies, so it promises that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will soon be transferable to third-party digital wallets.
The future novelty was announced by PayPal’s vice president and general manager of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currencies, Jose Fernandez da Ponte.
During CoinDesk’s Consensus 2021 conference, Ponte told event moderator Jeff John Roberts that the cryptocurrency withdrawal function is in progress — which will also be available on PayPal and Venmo, a subsidiary of PayPal. Anyway, the details about the implementation are still scarce.
At #Consensus2021:
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) May 26, 2021
"We want to make it as open as possible."@PayPal's Jose Fernandez da Ponte confirms third-party wallet transfers are coming to PayPal and @Venmo platforms soon. https://t.co/PJg71S61Ru pic.twitter.com/maZCqHDimx
“We want to make it as open as possible, and we want to give a choice to our consumers, something that will let them pay in any way they want to pay. They want to bring their crypto to us so they can use it in commerce, and we want them to be able to take the crypto they acquired with us and take it to the destination of their choice,” said Ponte.
PayPal understands that cryptocurrencies are much more useful when they can be moved, according to the executive. So the company is exploring how it could allow people to transfer cryptocurrencies to their wallets. He also pointed out that the company sends new developments every two months, on average. However, he did not specify when the function would be made available to users.
He also gave no further details on how PayPal intends to handle the blockchain transactions that will be created when users send and receive cryptocurrencies.