I didn't know if this thread should be in Economics or Exchanges, but the thread I drew inspiration from was in the former. Mods, please move it as you see fit.
I just read
this article from Coindesk, which was from June, but I hadn't heard anything mentioned about it on the forum (where I get most of my crypto news). Am I the only one who's feeling just a tad bit excited about the prospect of being able to buy & sell bitcoin through PayPal/Venmo? I fully understand that if you're not the type who likes KYC it won't be your thing, but right now I personally have no way to purchase bitcoin through a service like this. Coinbase isn't an option, since they nuked my account years ago.
From the article:
Fintech giant PayPal plans to roll out direct sales of cryptocurrency to its 325 million users, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Currently, PayPal can be used as an alternative means for withdrawing funds from exchanges such as Coinbase, but this would be a first in terms of offering direct sales of crypto.
“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.”
It is unclear which or how many cryptocurrencies would be available. The industry source said they expected PayPal “would be working with multiple exchanges to source liquidity.”
A second source confirmed that PayPal is looking to offer buying and selling of crypto and said the service could be expected “in the next three months, maybe sooner.”
I have a PayPal account already, but I went ahead and signed up for Venmo just in case this thing becomes a reality.
Curious to hear the community's opinion about this.