Paypal apparently sees the United Kingdom as the next market for its crypto service. CEO Dan Schulman’s CBDC plans are also attracting attention.
After US customers of the payment service provider Paypal had been able to purchase cryptocurrencies via the platform since autumn last year, it was actually only a matter of time before the offer would also be available in other parts of the world.
PayPal itself had initially spoken of the “first half of 2021”
Now that time is getting closer and closer. Apparently, UK residents will be the first outside of the US to be able to use PayPal to buy and sell cryptocurrencies.
According to a recent tweet from journalist Carl Quintanilla , PayPal is initially planning to expand its crypto service in the UK. This should already happen in the coming months. There are also plans to make crypto available to Venmo wallet holders before the end of the 2nd quarter of 2021. Other offers include the international expansion of the in-house payment app Venmo before 2026 and a broader rollout of the app’s credit cards.
PayPal wants to play an important role in CBDC distribution
At the presentation of the figures from the fourth quarter of 2020, CEO Dan Schulman announced the expansion of Venmo services. However, he initially left it open which market will follow the USA in terms of crypto offerings. However, at a PayPal Investors Day on February 11, 2021, Schulman mentioned that he saw his company play a significant role in the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
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PayPal is a perfect match for central banks and governments to distribute this CBDC in a modern way so that more people can access the digital economy and we think this is a focus area of this new business unit we have built.
And Schulman
Some analysts are already rumoring that there is more to Schulman’s comments than “just” efforts at CBDC sales. “Step 1” on the product roadmap presented during the presentation of the figures is the activation of crypto as a financing instrument. Schulman also indicated that PayPal is considering digitizing other assets through the use of smart contracts and tokenization. Since he called the conventional financial system “obsolete,” this approach is only consistent.
As far as PayPal’s investment in cryptocurrencies is concerned, according to CFO John Rainey, it is time to wait and see. He said this in an interview with the Canadian broadcaster CNBC . Rainey thinks it is very unlikely that the company will take such a step.