The acceptance of cryptocurrencies has meant that many traditional payment channels have opened the door to new asset classes. Large payment providers like Visa and Mastercard and digital payment platforms like Paypal have started adding crypto support. However, these large-scale integrations did not take place in a vacuum but were the result of stronger market sentiment.
Paypal Plans to Make Crypto Asset More Accessible to the Public
In a podcast on November 18, Jose Fernandez, PayPal’s senior vice president and general manager of Blockchain, Crypto, and Digital Currency stated that PayPal’s decision to offer crypto services was a combination of several factors: payment tools and regulatory clarity about the legality of the industry.
He added that we see it as part of our responsibility to make this asset class more accessible to the public.
In October last year, PayPal introduced the option to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies on the platform for the first time. In its earnings report for the third quarter, the payment provider also announced plans to expand its crypto products in the future.
Most Stablecoin are Used for Trading
However, rumours of the release of its own stablecoin have been spread, but executives have emphatically denied them. He said the department has not yet evolved to support their large volume of transactions and low value.
Fernandez stated that most of the stablecoins currently on the market are used for trading or DeFi. While these are good use cases, he admitted that PayPal is more interested in payments: “We haven’t seen a stable currency specifically for payments.”
However, since the platform is actively focusing on new L1 and L2 platforms that focus on large payments like Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana and Algorand, he revealed that he is sure when asked six weeks after, he can give you four or five different names that are considered for the company’s payment service.
In addition to cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, NFT is another area where PayPal has shown interest in the industry, which has seen significant growth this year. Fernandez noted that he saw “our role in the NFT” and had high hopes for it, and Fernandez added that there were still several issues that hamper this integration.
He stated that the experience of buying an NFT today is the number of times you have to go through it, this goes for protection too. Fernandez noted that the NFT is definitely for the early adopters, not a mainstream experience for the curious but immature user.
The senior vice president mentioned that the technical complexity of buying and holding NFTs could prevent many users from interacting with the industry. He added that they can definitely help provide a seamless payment experience for NFT because many of their merchants and partners, especially in the media space, are calling for it.
