You can not only send money to friends and trading partners via PayPal. With ‘PayPal Coin’, the financial service provider also has ambitions to gain a foothold in the crypto world. The first designations of its own currency appeared at the beginning of 2022.
Trading cryptocurrencies with PayPal is currently still limited. Bitcoin, Ethereum and Co can only be traded in Germany through alternative platforms such as eToro. In the US and UK, they are already a step further and offer crypto trading for selected currencies directly.
Source code contains references to PayPal Coin
With the “PayPal Coin” there could soon be its own production on the crypto market. The PayPal currency would be a “stable currency” pegged to the US dollar. The stablecoin is intended for payment transactions. Corresponding information was found in the source code of the PayPal app in January 2022.
At Bloomberg, the plans were officially confirmed by José Fernandez da Ponte, Vice President of Crypto and Digital Currencies at PayPal. He also announced that he would work closely with the regulators on an introduction.
PayPal: proprietary cryptocurrency is coming
When and in what form a PayPal coin will appear is still unknown. According to a PayPal spokeswoman, the source code elements found were created as part of a “hackathon” by the blockchain, crypto and digital currency department. Developer Steve Moser accidentally discovered the relevant information in PayPal’s iOS app. So it is still an early stage of development. The found logo, as well as the name “PayPal Coin” and the final design are subject to change.
PayPal’s own coin would be another step to gain a foothold in the crypto world. After trading digital currencies via PayPal in the US for a long time, the offer was last extended to the UK in September 2021. Other countries will follow in the future.
There are no crypto options with PayPal in Germany yet. For this you have to take a detour through third-party platforms.
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