PayPal unleashes crypto power for merchants to buy, hold, and sell digital asset

Payments pioneer PayPal announced it is enabling U.S. merchants to buy, hold, and sell cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal business accounts. However, this functionality will not be available in New York State at launch.

This latest move marks another significant step for the payments giant in increasing cryptocurrency’s utility, providing millions of merchants across the U.S. with enhanced functionality.

Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s Senior Vice President of Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Currencies commented on the development:

Business owners have been asking for the same cryptocurrency functionality that consumers enjoy. We’re thrilled to meet that demand.

~Jose Fernandez da Ponte

PayPal expands crypto capabilities for business accounts

Along with buying and selling crypto, PayPal business accounts can also send and receive tokens on-chain to external wallets. 

PayPal has steadily expanded its crypto services since 2020, when it first allowed customers to buy, hold, and sell digital assets through both PayPal and Venmo.

In 2023, PayPal introduced its own U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), which is fully supported by U.S. dollar deposits, Treasuries, and cash equivalents. PYUSD was recently launched providing users with access to multiple blockchains for their transactions. The token runs on both the Ethereum and Solana networks. Additionally, it is the 109th biggest digital asset with a market cap of over $712 million. As a stablecoin, it is pegged to the value of the U.S. dollar.

By April 2024, PayPal enabled PYUSD as a funding option on its Xoom platform, allowing users to send money to friends and family abroad without incurring transaction fees when using PYUSD.

PayPal enhances its rewards program, offering customers up to 15% cash back on selected purchases

The payment giant has spent most of the year working to find ways to make it easier for customers to make transactions. A few weeks ago, the California-based fintech announced it is expanding its rewards program to incentivize customers to choose PayPal at the point of sale.

With the newly enhanced rewards program, consumers choose a monthly spending category, such as groceries or clothing, for which they want to receive 5% cash back using their PayPal Debit Mastercard. Shoppers can receive up to $1,000 in cash back in their selected category.

Additionally, users can stack cash-back offers. For instance, if a DoorDash customer selects a restaurant as their monthly category, they will get a 5% cash back offer for using their PayPal Mastercard and another 10% cash back if they save the deal from DoorDash in the PayPal app. The 15% total rewards will be automatically applied when checking out with PayPal.