August 24, 2021
U.K. PayPal customers will now be able to use the platform to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies.
Customers will still be unable to pay directly with Bitcoin.
Instead, the cryptocurrency must be exchanged for traditional currency and its value used for a cash transaction.
PayPal is partnering initially with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash. However, the currencies cannot be sent to friends or family or transferred to or from another digital wallet.
PayPal introduced its cryptocurrency service in the U.S. in October to make it more accessible to a wider audience, but its value remains volatile and unregulated, meaning that when something goes wrong, no regulator protects it.
Users can buy or sell cryptocurrencies up to:
- £15,000 per transaction
- £35,000 per year
U.K. regulators have become increasingly suspicious of cryptocurrencies in recent months, with the Financial Conduct Authority banning Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, from doing any “regulated activity” in the U.K. in June.
But on Monday, PayPal chief executive Dan Schulman told the Financial Times: “I do believe that governments, central banks are understanding that the world is moving towards digital payments, that you cannot manage monetary policy through the issuance of banknotes.”
PayPal plans to expand its cryptocurrency service to other international territories in the near future.
For more information, read the original story in the BBC.
