MetaMask has added a PayPal integration to its software wallet, allowing U.S. users to purchase Ethereum directly from its mobile app. While the feature is not yet available to all U.S. users, MetaMask plans to slowly roll out the feature “in the coming weeks.”
According to the announcement, the PayPal integration will only be available through the MetaMask mobile app. The MetaMask browser extension already offers U.S. users the ability to purchase cryptocurrency directly from their wallet through CoinbasePay, Transak, MoonPay, or Wyre.
In a statement, MetaMask Product Manager Lorenzo Santos said that the new feature will make it easy for users to venture further into Web3.
“This integration with PayPal will allow our U.S. users to not just buy crypto seamlessly through MetaMask, but also to easily explore the Web3 ecosystem,” Santos said.
Santos told Decrypt via email that the PayPal integration will be available on MetaMask's desktop browser extension "in the next quarter."
Santos also confirmed that MetaMask's 1% service fee will apply to all purchases, as well as applicable PayPal fees. When asked if Apple's 30% in-app purchase fee would also apply to such ETH purchases made on the MetaMask mobile app, Santos said that MetaMask "cannot provide any information regarding this at the moment."
“Pleased to welcome the fox to the PayPal ecosystem,” PayPal’s Crypto Communications Lead Aaron Gould posted on Twitter in response to the news.
MetaMask’s new PayPal integration could also help reduce friction in the onboarding process, allowing those who are new to crypto to avoid the cumbersome process of purchasing cryptocurrency through an exchange—and then having to carefully send funds to their MetaMask wallet.
Ethereum co-founder and ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin joined Decrypt's Dan Roberts on October 4 for a deep-dive chat on the Ethereum merge and aftermath, what's keeping the crypto market down, why he's super bullish on NFTs and the metaverse, whether it's really a multichain future, and much more.
The news is noteworthy for U.S. PayPal users and marks the firm’s latest move in the cryptocurrency market. PayPal first began offering users the ability to buy and sell crypto in 2020, but only offered Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, and users could not move their crypto to other wallets like MetaMask until June of this year.
It’s no surprise that MetaMask is focused on offering its users ETH purchases first and foremost. Unlike competitor wallets Phantom and Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask remains an EVM-only wallet, meaning other blockchains beyond Ethereum, its sidechains, and layer-2 protocols are not supported.
MetaMask’s parent company, ConsenSys, is also run by Ethereum cofounder Joe Lubin and remains an Ethereum-focused company.
MetaMask and PayPal have not yet responded to Decrypt’s request for comment.
(Disclosure: ConsenSys Mesh, a separate entity from ConsenSys Software, is one of
22 strategic investors in
Decrypt.)
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