PayPal’s cryptocurrency service is going to expand rapidly in 2021, executives said on the payments giant’s third-quarter earnings call Monday evening.
That includes crypto services coming to Venmo and international customers in the first half of 2021, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said.
Currently, only 10% of customers in the U.S. have access to the new crypto service with the rest of the U.S. gaining access to the tools in the next two to three weeks, Schulman said. PayPal saw enough interest following its Oct. 21 announcement that the firm has increased weekly crypto purchase limits from $10,000 to $15,000.
Schulman went on to predict there would be greater opportunities for PayPal in an economy that embraces digital identity and fully digital payments and financial services.
When talking about central banks creating retail-facing digital currencies, Schulman added that PayPal is looking to create “the most expansive and compelling digital wallet in the world.”
In October, PayPal confirmed what CoinDesk had reported in June: It was adding features for users to be able to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin saw a 15% increase in price in response to the news but PayPal’s stock price has trended downward by 12% since the Oct. 21 announcement.
The payments giant reported an increase of 36% in new payments volume to $247 billion in Q3 2020. The company’s number of merchants grew by 1.5 million to 28 million. PayPal now has 361 million active accounts, a 22% increase quarter-over-quarter.
PayPal’s most recent earnings report had only the slightest mention of cryptocurrency, briefly recapping its crypto announcement in the “business updates” section.
This is a developing story.