Bloomberg: Is PayPal buying crypto custodian BitGo?

PayPal is reportedly in talks to buy a number of crypto companies, including Bitcoin custodian BitGo. 

It’s unclear what this means for Paxos Trust Company, a competitor of BitGo and the cryptocurrency custodian PayPal has named its official cryptocurrency processing partner. 

Citing anonymous sources, the Bloomberg report said that PayPal Holdings is looking to double down on its jump into crypto this week. No other firms were mentioned by name, and the sources made clear BitGo was not a done deal.

On Oct. 21, PayPal President and CEO Dan Schulman announced that U.S. customers would soon be able to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash in digital wallets connected to their accounts. Even more importantly, they will be able to spend their crypto at PayPal’s network of 26 million merchants worldwide.

Schulman said that digital currencies bring “clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly.”

The plan is to expand to other countries next year. With nearly 350 million customers worldwide, PayPal’s embrace of bitcoin will make it far easier for people new to crypto to comfortably begin investing in BTC.

The day after PayPal’s announcement, Bitcoin surged past $13,000, despite having only just crossed $12,000. It also brought bitcoin even deeper into the mainstream news cycle, where it had landed after the recent $425 million investment by MicroStrategy 

“Our global reach, digital payments expertise, two-sided network, and rigorous security and compliance controls provide us with the opportunity, and the responsibility, to help facilitate the understanding, redemption and interoperability of these new instruments of exchange,” Schulman explained in announcing the Bitcoin news. “We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”