On March 30, PayPal announced that its users in the U.S. will now be able to pay for products and services with cryptocurrencies using their accounts. The Verge reports about the payment provider’s new feature called “Checkout with Crypto.”
Using this feature, clients can make transactions in crypto, which will be instantly converted into USD. Currently the service supports such assets as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. For non-USD transactions, PayPal would be converting USD into merchant’s currency, the source says.
PayPal has taken several steps to enable its clients to pay with cryptocurrencies using their accounts on its platform. In October last year, the company announced that its customers could buy, sell, and hold crypto using their accounts thanks to a partnership with crypto firm Paxos. In February this year, PayPal’s CEO revealed the firm’s plans to invest in a crypto-related business unit. Moreover, early in March, PayPal acquired digital asset security firm Curv which joined the new unit.
The announcement from PayPal, along with Monday’s announcement from Visa, could have been the reason behind the boost in the price of Bitcoin and some altcoins. Bitcoin is trading at around $58,800, up by 2.7% in the past 24 hours at the time of writing. In addition, Ethereum is trading at around $1,829, up by 1.8%, per CoinMarketCap.com data.
