PayPal and Venmo about to change the game...
In what has to be the biggest news of the day, PayPal and Venmo are likely about to begin integrating bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.
Keep in mind that this hasn't yet been confirmed beyond just "a well-placed industry source".
But, according to sources, PayPal and Venmo are going to enable buying and selling of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as well as have wallet capabilities.
The exact quote:
“My understanding is that they are going to allow buys and sells of crypto directly from PayPal and Venmo,” a well-placed industry source told CoinDesk. “They are going to have some sort of a built-in wallet functionality so you can store it there.”
(Source: https://www.coindesk.com/paypal-venmo-to-roll-out-crypto-buying-and-selling)
This would be the first time either PayPal or Venmo has ever been involved with allowing users to directly buy, sell, or send cryptocurrencies.
It is unclear which cryptocurrencies will be offered and/or how many will be available at this time, but the thoughts are that they will use exchanges for liquidity.
Likely an exchange like Coinbase, one which PayPal has a long history with.
(Source:
)https://twitter.com/jhamel/status/1275165069299646464
- jhamel
Boy have the times changed for ol bitcoin and crypto...
It is amazing how far bitcoin and crypto have come in just a few short years.
Just a few short years ago the CEO of PayPal was calling bitcoin the greatest scam in history, a colossal pump and dump, things along those lines...
And now they are endorsing it.
Not to mention they were the ones that helped put bitcoin on the main stage by freezing well known accounts...
It appears I was not the only one that noticed the irony in all of this...
(Source:
)https://twitter.com/jimmysong/status/1275237747033341952
- jimmysong
My thoughts...
If this news turns out to be true, and every indication thus far are that it will be (the price action of bitcoin seemed to support that idea as well), it's absolutely massive news for bitcoin.
Currently PayPal has more than 325 million accounts.
Venmo has 52 million accounts.
The latest estimates point to something like 6 million active users in bitcoin...
https://www.bitcoinmarketjournal.com/how-many-people-use-bitcoin/
You do the math...
That is something like a 60x increase in the number potential users. Not all of the will become users of course, but it would only take roughly 2% of them using bitcoin for bitcoin to double its user base...
Wowza!
If the above news is correct and they plan to integrate bitcoin and crypto into their payment processing sites, they likely changed the game for bitcoin and crypto and may have also loaded the bullet in the gun to be used for their own death...
It's a bit like Blockbuster enabling you to buy Netflix subscriptions from its store ten years ago...
(Source:
)https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz/status/1275171500778237954
- JasonYanowitz
Perhaps they already saw the writing on the wall and decided they wanted to get involved and pick up some transactions fees along the way...
Whatever the reason, this is massive news for bitcoin and crypto.
Stay informed my friends.
-Doc