PayPal CEO suggests crypto becoming a core business

The CEO of payment processing and financial technology giant PayPal said that more crypto asset-powered features are coming to its ecosystem.

During the company’s Q4 earnings report call with investors on Feb.3, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said that cryptocurrency trades “far exceeded our expectations” in a year that was “the strongest year in our history.”

The support for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies announced so far is just the first step in realizing a much larger plan, he said, adding:

“These initial steps are just the beginning of an extensive road map around crypto, blockchain, and digital currencies.”

Calling the current cash-based financial system “antiquated,” Schulman said “we can envision a future where transactions are completed in seconds not days, a future where transactions should be less expensive to complete and a future that enables all people to be part of the digital economy, not just the affluent.” He added: 

“We are significantly investing in our new crypto, blockchain and digital currencies business unit in order to help shape this more inclusive future.” 

As Modern Consensus reported, in mid-November PayPal launched its long-anticipated crypto features, allowing its users to buy and sell Bitcoin and several altcoins. Later that month, Schulman promised that the firm would make it “very simple and easy” to use cryptocurrencies every day by allowing it to be spent at its network of 29 million merchant partners.

While he did not share how many people are using its services to buy crypto assets, Schulman pointed out that users who engaged with the Bitcoin features opened the PayPal app at twice the rate of others. 

This is not particularly surprising data, given that the firm’s customers were reported to be buying Bitcoin faster than miners were able to generate it in mid-December.

The level of user engagement is increasingly important for the firm, given that Schulman said PayPal intends to “build out our digital wallet… into the super app, that transcends across payments, commerce and financial services, all of that on a common platform.” He added: 

“I think we are going to see… a real bend in the historic rate of engagement.”