PayPal Holdings Inc. will start giving its U.K. users the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies on its platform, marking the expansion of a feature that the company said has proved popular in the U.S.
PayPal’s
PYPL,
+1.14%
U.K. users will gain the ability to buy, hold, and sell bitcoin
BTCUSD,
+2.37%,
ethereum
ETHUSD,
+5.42%,
litecoin
LTCUSD,
+3.30%,
and Bitcoin Cash
BCHUSD,
+2.47%,
the company announced overnight Monday, with the new function starting to roll out this week.
The company launched this crypto functionality for U.S. users last fall, and the U.K. rollout marks its first expansion of the feature internationally. PayPal said in a release that the feature launch makes it so “access, knowledge, and the exploration of cryptocurrency has the potential to become mainstream in the U.K.”
“We are committed to continue working closely with regulators in the U.K., and around the world, to offer our support—and meaningfully contribute to shaping the role digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce,” said Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal’s vice president for blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies, in the release.
PayPal Chief Executive Dan Schulman said in late July on PayPal’s latest earnings call that the company is “really pleased with the momentum we’re seeing on crypto,” and that PayPal raised its weekly crypto purchasing limits for users to $100,000. The previous weekly limit was $20,000.
The company has also rolled out crypto functions on its Venmo mobile wallet and has seen “strong adoption and trading” there, Schulman said on the earnings call.
PayPal shares are up 1% in Monday morning trading. They’ve gained 9.9% over the past three months as the S&P 500
SPX,
+1.00%
has risen 7.8%.
