Users of popular payments apps PayPal and Venmo will soon be able to buy, sell, hold, and transfer Solana and Chainlink from directly inside their accounts alongside leading cryptocurrencies Bitcoin and Ethereum.
PayPal said that adding the new coins, which are both among the top 15 most valuable cryptocurrencies by market cap respectively according to data from CoinGecko, reflects the company’s "dedication to the evolving digital currency landscape.”
“Since we initially made cryptocurrencies available on PayPal and Venmo, we’ve been listening to our users about what they want to do with crypto on our platforms,” said May Zabaneh, PayPal’s VP of product, blockchain, crypto and digital currencies in a statement.
“Offering more tokens on PayPal and Venmo provides users with greater flexibility, choice, and access to digital currencies,” she added. “This allows for more options to buy, send, or spend within our trusted PayPal and Venmo wallets.”
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Access to Chainlink and Solana purchases will roll out to users in-app “over the next few weeks.”
PayPal began allowing users to buy, sell, or hold Bitcoin and Ethereum directly in 2020 and has since made moves to advance its crypto product offering, later expanding capabilities to its popular Venmo mobile payments app.
Since that time, the firm has gradually expanded its crypto footprint, launching its own dollar-pegged stablecoin (PYUSD) on Ethereum in 2023 before expanding it to Solana.
In September 2024, business account owners were granted the ability to buy, sell, and hold assets directly via their accounts, piggybacking on a trend of businesses and institutions cozying up to the largest crypto assets. That announcement was preceded by a feature addition that allowed users to send crypto via PayPal and Venmo using the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).
PayPal Wants 20 Million Merchants Using PYUSD Stablecoin by End of 2025
PayPal's U.S. dollar-pegged PYUSD stablecoin is moving beyond experimental status, the company said Tuesday. The update was shared during the company's investor day in New York, with execs from the payments tech firm touting ambitious plans for its future. "The thesis was: Can we facilitate that on PYUSD rails so as not to have the currency conversion, the friction, as well as time?" Michelle Gill, general manager of PayPal's small and medium enterprises line of business, said in an interview wi...
More recently, the company teamed with crypto payments platform MoonPay, allowing users of Venmo to utilize their balance, bank, or debit card to purchase any cryptocurrency via MoonPay’s payment rails. The same feature was added in PayPal as early as May 2024.
PayPal recently stated a goal of having 20 million merchants using its PYUSD stablecoin by the end of 2025. Around the time of that announcement, shares in the company were trading around $77, but its PYPL stock has slid to $58.47 at the time of writing, marking a loss of around 32% year-to-date.
Solana and Chainlink are both up in the last 24 hours, gaining 5.2% and 1.4% respectively.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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