(Reuters) – PayPal Holdings Inc said on Wednesday it will allow U.S. merchants to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency through their business accounts.
Cryptocurrencies have gone from an emerging asset class to gaining greater market acceptance since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the listing of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds earlier this year.
“There is a growing demand from business owners to have the same cryptocurrency capabilities available to consumers,” said José Fernández da Ponte, PayPal’s senior vice president of blockchain, crypto and digital currency.
PayPal entered the cryptocurrency market in 2020, allowing customers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin and other virtual currencies using the digital payments company’s online wallet.
The company launched a dollar-backed stablecoin in August 2023, becoming the first major financial technology company to adopt the digital currency for payments and remittances.
Stablecoins are crypto tokens whose monetary value is pegged to a stable asset in order to protect potential investors from sudden price fluctuations.
San Jose, California-based PayPal also allows U.S. merchants to transfer on-chain cryptocurrency externally to eligible third-party wallets.
However, the company said on its website that the service will not be available to New York state business accounts at launch.
The company’s shares have risen about 26% so far this year.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
