By Dave Sebastian

 

PayPal Holdings Inc. said it will host cryptocurrency payments.

The digital-payments company on Wednesday said it is debuting its service due to rising interest in digital currencies from central banks and consumers amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Users would be able to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency from their PayPal accounts and make purchases at 26 million merchants world-wide, PayPal said. The company's digital wallet will first allow for the transaction of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, it said.

"The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it 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," PayPal President and Chief Executive Dan Schulman said.

The company, which has gotten a conditional Bitlicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services, said the service will be available in the U.S. in the coming weeks. It also plans to expand the features to its Venmo platform and certain countries in the first half of 2021, PayPal said.

PayPal said it won't charge cryptocurrency transaction costs through the end of the year. It also won't charge fees for holding cryptocurrency in a PayPal account.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 21, 2020 08:31 ET (12:31 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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